Kings and Vagabonds
by Akino Ame
Summary: A kidnapping attempt on Eiji goes wrong, and both he and a Foundation X agent find themselves in the time of the King and the Greeed. Something is amiss in this kingdom, and Eiji must guard himself against the King and his alchemists, as well as the agent he must depend on. But what does this have to do with a mysterious woman, the village children, and the BraKaWani Medals?
1. Fates Crossing into Now

In life, all you really need is a clean pair of underwear to face the day. Everything else will sort itself out.

Since resuming his nomadic life to help the Kougami Foundation with its research into the Core Medals, Eiji had added a few more things to his list: his cell phone and charger, to help him keep in touch with his friends; his OOO driver and case of Medals, in case he ran into trouble; and Ankh's broken Medal, as a promise that he would one day bring him back.

And so his journey brought him to Thuringia, Germany, where eight-hundred years before, the Core Medals, the Greeed, and the original OOO had been born. While the archeology teams there believed they'd unearthed most of the big artifacts there were to be found, Eiji still wanted to learn everything he possibly could. He mostly just let the professionals handle the digging and handling of everything while he wandered around and wrote down notes, but the ruins of the castle made him stop in his tracks.

It must have been majestic in its past, but it had crumbled and decayed, and what stones that weren't being overgrown with plants were blackened from age. It was easy to miss, which was what had made this dig so hard for the Kougami Foundation for ages, but it was the castle the King had ruled from.

"Careful," warned a woman as she came through. "We're still collecting artifacts here."

"Uh, sorry," Eiji apologized, reflexively in his poor German before realizing the woman spoke Japanese. "Wait, you're from the Japanese branch?"

"Yes," she answered, not looking up. And now that he was looking, he could see her light-colored hair had been dyed, and beneath her glasses, the familiar facial features of someone from his home country.

...Somehow, a little too familiar.

"What a relief," he admitted. "I've been struggling with the language this whole trip. I can get Arabic and English just fine, but something about German is harder."

She nodded politely, but kept her head down otherwise. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and turned to look at the remains of a stained glass window, long since shattered.

"This must have been the chapel where the original OOO sealed the Greeed," he said after a pause. "It's hard to believe no one found it for centuries." He looked back at her, but she was still cataloguing. "Or do you think there was another reason looters didn't take everything?"

"Superstition," she said, still not looking up. "Fear of more Greeed existing, eventually things being forgotten."

Eiji nodded himself this time, then turned back to the window. Reaching for his bag, he pulled out a candroid and started to open it...

A bullet knocked the can right out of his hand. He whirled around and saw the archeologist, holding a gun on him. All at once, Trash Yummies appeared from the forest.

"I thought you looked familiar," he said. "Foundation X—you worked for Kannagi, didn't you?"

"I did," she answered, keeping her gun trained on him. "The Foundation's crumbled since then—no thanks to the Riders."

"Didn't think they'd want you back," he admitted.

"You could say I'm on probation," she said. "It was easy enough to convince them that we defectors only wanted stronger leadership and a more proactive stance against the Riders, only to learn too late how crazed Kannagi really was. After all, I was only an enforcer; I didn't directly participate in the coup. "

"What do you want?" he asked.

"Right now, your Medals," she demanded.

Carefully, Eiji reached for his case and tossed it to the ground. The agent motioned for one of her Yummies to bring it to her, and she glanced at the contents.

"It's complete," Eiji said, his voice flat but tense. It wasn't the first time he'd been held hostage, and old memories were weighing on him. "The rest of the Medals were destroyed by PuToTyra."

The agent judged him carefully before allowing the Yummies to grab him. "If you're lying, it'll be harder on you later."

"You're going to kill me anyway," he argued. "What's the point of cooperating?"

The Yummies pulled him forward, and the agent kept up her pace by him, keeping him in sight at all times and never too far away in front or back.

"I'm not Kannagi, who boasted about his plans before they were complete," she said. "Suffice to say, my mission is to bring you back alive."

Eiji kept a look out around him, watching every tree and shadow. Seeing this, the agent said, "If you're looking for an escape route, you're out of luck. My men have already taken out the archeology team and its security detail. They're everywhere"

"I already figured that part," he said, with a hint of a confident smile. "You wouldn't be good kidnappers if you hadn't. So I'm glad I called for backup."

To her credit, the agent didn't stop—immediately dropping as the blast from a Birth Buster hit the tree behind her before leaping for the shooter. But it was enough confusion for Eiji to rip his arm free from one of the Yummies and jump up and kick the other one back.

With him free, a contingent of Kougami Foundation security officers burst out of hiding, shooting at the Yummies and the agent with their Birth Busters. The agent had just a moment to give Eiji a shocked look, to which he grinned, holding up his phone.

"Candroids aren't the only way to call for help," he said. "We already knew Foundation X was in the area, so we were ready. Those archeologists you thought you killed were all security agents, and the security team were the elite unit. They were all ready for you." The agent glared at him, her face beginning to transform—a Mutamit, one of Foundation X's augmented human projects.

The security detail was still firing on her as Eiji pulled out the OOO Driver and his second ace-in-the-hole—the Super TaToBa Medals he'd received from a Rider from the future, Minato Miharu. The agent shifted into a golden jaguar creature and dashed toward him, but he transformed and quickly knocked her aside, getting the case out of her hands. He raced toward it, faster than the Mutamit could perceive, and paused only to start drawing Medals.

"Probably want LaToraTah," he muttered. "This form's a little overkill."

But with him in one place for a moment, the Mutamit was able to attack, striking him with a wooden-looking rod embedded with black blades; Eiji had no doubt that those were specially designed just for him. He didn't have the luxury of changing combos now; overkill would have to do. A security officer tossed him a case. Without missing a beat, he sliced it open with his claws, revealing the Medajalibur. The Mutamit came at him again, and he met her sword, but she produced a small black knife and slashed at him beneath his guard, forcing him to back away. It looked like stone, like obsidian maybe, but it was sharp enough to leave a scratch in his armor.

He was going to have to end this now, and he started to load Cell Medals into the Medajalibur, but the Mutamit knocked the case out of his hand with her knife. He kicked her back to keep her from grabbing them, but it meant he was going to have to improvise. He removed the Core Medals from the Driver and inserted them, just as the Mutamit charged him again. He scanned the Medals and slashed at her, just as her sword met his.

A wave of energy tore reality in two. The backlash engulfed them, and for a moment, everything was white. But the rift healed itself quickly, and they both collapsed to the ground, reverting forms. Eiji tried to catch his breath and immediately caught a whiff of something awful. There was an open latrine nearby—he'd dealt with the persistent stench before in some of his travels, and he knew to try to calm his breathing. The Foundation X agent wasn't so lucky, and he could hear her gagging and retching. This made for the perfect time to escape.

Eiji stood up and realized all of a sudden that he was no longer in the forest, standing before the ruins of a medieval castle. Instead, he was in a village of some kind, with a majestic castle standing not far in the distance. He quickly grabbed his notebook and compared it against what he'd written and drawn—there was no way to prove it for sure, but it looked like the same one.

A voice called out to him in what sounded like German. His difficulties with the language made it impossible to understand what was being said, but it was the voice that made him turn—a voice he heard every time he scanned a Medal. And impossibly, surrounded by a small army of knights, was OOO.

It took him a moment to put it together—alternate worlds and Riders were possible, but the intact castle and the language still sounding like German were proof of a far more devastating realization: they'd traveled back in time. The Medals that had transcended time had taken them back to the days of the first OOO, when the original Medals they'd been patterned off of had been created. But in the time it took for him to realize this—and realize just how serious the consequences were—the King ordered his knights to seize Eiji and the agent, and the single most suspicious item in their possession.

* * *

In retrospect, trying to argue, in broken German, mind you, "We're not your enemy!" when you have a sword lying on the ground next to you is not a helpful defense. The fact the agent was _his_ enemy didn't help things either.

The knights seized them and started to march them toward the castle. The agent was trying to get free, but Eiji didn't bother. Resisting now was only going to be a waste of energy—energy he'd need later. As it stood, he didn't have much in the way of options.

There was a chance that the energy flux from the Medals could send them back to their own time spontaneously. Or a portal from the future could open, like the ones Miharu had used to travel to his time a few years before. Or with the very real possibility he could set history off-track with a wrong breath, Nogami Kotaro or Momotaros might have arrive with DenLiner. But each possibility seemed as unlikely as the next.

"They think we're assassins," the agent muttered.

"Well, we didn't exactly look innocent," he admitted.

"Are you just going to let them take us?" she challenged. "Or do you have something else to get us out of this?"

"I've got nothing," he said, trying his best not to sulk. OOO had seized everything in his pockets, the bracelet from his wrist, and the shawl he'd worn in place of a jacket. "They even took my underwear for tomorrow."

She stared at him with an eyebrow raised. He shrugged. He wasn't about to talk to an evil, kidnapping, merchant of death about his grandfather. Growling under her breath, she started to produce her knife as Eiji stared in horror.

"When I say so, get down," she whispered.

"You can't!" he whispered back.

But before she could attack, electricity hit a tree near them. The agent didn't wait to pull him down, and he hit the ground hard. OOO turned and growled, "Uva."

"What?" Eiji asked, but the agent pulled him back down.

OOO turned to his knights. "Get the prisoners to the castle. I'll handle this."

A young woman in blue ran up, crying, "Your Majesty! Your Majesty, please!"

OOO looked at her, and his voice was harsh. "Gerhild."

She stopped and curtseyed nervously. "I know, I was banished from your sight. But please—there are two of those Yummies attacking."

"Two?" OOO repeated.

"The second is from the bird Greeed," she insisted. "I only just managed to escape—it's taken the children hostage!"

OOO turned to another few knights. "You, search for the bird Yummy. I'll take care of the one in the village and the Greeed." To the woman, he insisted, "I'll deal with you later."

But as he was about to order the remaining knights to the castle with Eiji and the agent, he noticed them suddenly missing from the area.

"Where are the prisoners?" he demanded.

In fact, the agent had grabbed Eiji by the wrist and dragged him toward the forest the moment the King's attention was on the young woman.

"Where are you going?" Eiji insisted.

"Away from here," she answered.

"But the Yummy..." he protested.

"Not our time, not our battle!"

He started twisting his wrist, trying to get free, but she tightened her grip and pulled him to the ground, pulling his arm behind his back.

"I've done my research on you," she insisted. "I know how you think. After high school, you went on a worldwide tour on your father's money to provide relief to other countries. Your travels ended when you landed yourself in the middle of a civil war in the hottest region in Africa at the time and refused to leave before it was too late. Your father paid ransom to get you out, then had his men retrieve you from the international aid hospital when you hadn't even seen a doctor yet. Because he was afraid any news of you receiving psychiatric treatment would affect his career, he never let a therapist near you, and it's amazing you're even still functional because of it. Probable posttraumatic stress disorder, definite martyr complex. No desire for yourself, only for others."

He shouted as she pushed down on him again. He could feel his shoulder being stretched past his limit. But there were more important things to worry about, and he cried out, "There are people out there, dying!"

"They're already dead!" she shouted back. "They died eight-hundred years ago, and I don't have any intention of doing the same!"

He stared off into the forest. Somewhere out there were Yummies and Greeed attacking people. There was no portal waiting to take him home, no time train ready to stop his interference—only the screams of people as they fled the attack.

An idea hit him as she twisted his arm again. "The...the sword."

She loosened her grip only slightly, just so he could talk without screaming. "What about it?"

"The Super Medals," he said. "They're still with the sword. That's the only way we'll make it back—their power is time, so they went back to when the originals were created. It should work the other way too. OOO still has them."

She let go, and Eiji moved his arm back with a groan. As he sat up, she asked, "Did they get your Driver?"

"I don't know," he admitted, rubbing his shoulder. "I wasn't wearing it when the knights grabbed us—I don't know if it's back there, or if the King has it, or..."

"We can't go back where we were right now," she argued. "Any other plans?"

No. No plan, no rescue from future Riders, no time-traveling train, no phone, no charger, no notebook, no Medals, no Driver, no sword, no underwear.

"I never have a plan," he admitted, and though she scoffed, he stood up, holding a hand out to her. "The only way we're going to get the sword and Medals back is if we follow the King. We're going to have to earn his trust."

"He'd be a fool to, " she argued, but she still took his hand and stood up. "But it's the best we've got."

"Then we need to get to the village," he said. "The King will be there."

"And how exactly are we going to earn his trust, then?" she challenged.

He grinned. "By saving as many people as we can. Come on!"

He ran toward the village, and she sighed as she took chase. "You're lucky Foundation X needs you alive."

Contrary to her expectations, Eiji actually was extremely methodical about his actions during a battle. The moment he ran in, he took note of the fires, the injured civilians, and the collapsing houses. Mental triaging took place rapidly—the civilians had to be ushered away from the fires and buildings first, so he rushed over, urging in limited modern German, "This way, this way!"

"Over here!" insisted the woman from before.

Eiji looked at her and nodded before pointing people over her way. The agent, also running evacuations, saw her and looked his way.

"Her again," she noticed.

He nodded. The woman was moving people toward the edge of the forest, and now more people were recovering from their shock and following her.

"The King doesn't like her," she pointed out.

"Well, right now, I do," he insisted. Looking to the nearest house, he insisted, "Come on!"

It was as if the wood had completely rotted away. A man was trying to hold up his burning thatch roof while his wife tried to get their sheep and pigs out. Eiji immediately ran over to help the man hold up the thatch bundles while the agent produced her knife and cut a safer exit route.

"Through here!" she insisted in German. "Hurry!"

The husband looked at Eiji, who nodded before they both let go of the roof and ran. The man's wife grabbed him in a grateful hug while Eiji rubbed at his shoulder—the strain was getting worse.

"Hino," the agent warned.

"Another one," he insisted, making his way toward another house.

This one wasn't on fire, but it was in roughly the same straits—portions of the roof had collapsed on a woman inside. Eiji grabbed her hand and pulled as the agent cut her free from the bundles of thatch, then helped her out of the house altogether. He took one look at a rotted support beam and looked at her.

"It's the Yummy."

She nodded. "Guess someone was tired of fixing houses. Or wanted more to fix."

"Guess so," he answered, trying to stretch his arm.

"You're going to kill yourself at this rate," she pointed out.

"Then I won't be any use to you, right?" he challenged.

She sighed in exasperation. "You win. You want to help someone? Let's find those children."

He smiled slightly out of relief. "Thanks, Agent..."

"Solaris," she answered simply.

"Solaris," he agreed. "Let's see if anyone else knows where they went."

But the woman from before made her way over to them. In limited Japanese, she asked, "Children?"

Both Eiji and Solaris stared at her in shock. They were in Germany in the 1200s. While Japan hadn't yet instituted its isolationism policies, it was hard to believe that a young woman from an obscure kingdom in Thuringia would speak any Japanese.

"You speak our language?" Eiji asked.

She looked at them helplessly, not understanding a word. Picking up on it, Solaris asked in German, "A little bit, right? How?"

"I used to live in the castle," she explained. "Until a few months ago."

"The King?" she guessed, while Eiji watched the conversation hopelessly.

She nodded. "I was his lover. When I repeatedly failed to bear him a child, he sent me away."

"What's going on?" Eiji asked, completely lost.

"She was banished," Solaris translated. "For failing to provide the King with an heir."

His expression darkened somewhat as he nodded. In the little German he could manage, he put his hand to his chest and said, "I am Eiji." Then, to his newfound time-traveling partner, he added, "Solaris."

"Gerhild," the woman replied, placing a hand on her own chest. Looking to Solaris, she begged, "Please. I know where the children are. You have to help!"

Some things didn't need translating. Eiji looked directly at Gerhild and insisted, "We'll help."

The relief on her face was plain as day, and in Japanese, she said, "This way!"

She led them through the forest, and Eiji tried to sort everything out in his mind. She spoke very limited Japanese. The Core Medals all had names either in Japanese or English. Since both were connected to the King, it was possible that he spoke both languages, in addition to the local German. And Gara had spoken flawless Japanese, even if a bit antiquated. There was a connection somewhere, and it could explain how the Tokugawa clan had came to possess the orange Core Medals.

The sounds of crying suddenly came into earshot, and they stopped before a circle of stones in a clearing, surrounding a pit. Eiji chanced a look inside and saw dozens of children—several older children, a few younger children, and many, _many_ babies.

"How many of them are there?" he asked in shock.

Gerhild only had to watch Eiji's body language to figure out what he was saying, and she explained to Solaris, "There were a lot of babies born this year."

Eiji reached down into the nest to try to grab a child's hand. He was almost there when something barreled in, striking him directly in the ribs. He skidded down the side of the nest and rolled, clutching his side when he finally stopped. He looked up and saw the Yummy responsible—a giant penguin. He would have laughed at the absurdity if he could breathe right.

"Hino!" Solaris shouted, shifting directly to her Mutamit form.

"I'm fine!" he insisted, despite all evidence to the contrary. "We need to get the kids out of there!"

Solaris brought her sword down on the Yummy, but it blocked with a flipper. "Move!"

Nodding, Eiji got up and sprinted for the edge of the nest. Gerhild had run over to the edge to try to help the children, but when she saw him and saw what Solaris had transformed into, she picked up stones and started throwing them at him.

"No, we're..." Eiji stammered, trying to shield himself while struggling with the translation. "We're here to help!"

But she continued throwing rocks, forcing him back. As he backed up, he couldn't help but notice Gerhild hadn't left the edge. She was protecting the children, the same way a bird Yummy would protect its parent.

The realization hit him harder than the stones. Gerhild couldn't have children. They hadn't yet seen this Yummy's parent.

He ran toward her, ignoring the rocks continuing to hit him. The Yummy broke away from Solaris and made a dash toward Gerhild, but Eiji intercepted in time, pushing her out of the way and taking the bone-cracking hit that sent him rolling down into the nest. He dug in his hands and feet to slow himself down so he wouldn't land on anyone, and by the time he reached the bottom, his hands were raw.

He looked up. The younger children and the babies were all crying. The older ones were forming a barrier in front of them, watching him suspiciously.

"Ah, it's okay," he insisted, trying for his best German. "It's okay."

They didn't seem to believe a word he was saying. This wasn't uncommon for him, between fighting as OOO and his own travels around the world. But usually, he was able to offer something to help them out. He had nothing this time—just the laces on his boots, and his belt.

"I can maybe make a rope," he said to himself, unlacing his shoes and tying them together. They weren't strong enough on their own, but secured to his belt and twisted together, that was something else. But when he tried to reach his makeshift rope toward the edge of the nest, it didn't reach.

"So much for that idea," he sighed. "Solaris?"

Above, she was again locked in battle against the Penguin Yummy. She managed to get her knife in underneath its defenses, but it slapped her back with a flipper in rage.

"In the middle of something!" she yelled.

Gerhild was still watching the battle with apprehension, but Eiji's actions to save her from the Yummy had confused her. How could someone allied with a monster do something like that? She looked over the edge of the nest and saw him trying his best to reason with the children, crouching down to ask them to climb on his shoulders to safety. But they were all too frightened to trust him.

"It's all right," she called down to them. "We'll get you out of there!"

Eiji gave her a grateful look as the first child hesitantly climbed onto his shoulders. He stood up and walked over toward Gerhild, hefting the kid up. She reached down and managed to grab hold, getting him out.

The success emboldened the other children, and they started running up. But Eiji looked back at the youngest and held up his hands, trying to explain, "No, the babies first!"

As they stopped, he took off his shirt, tying it into a sling. He tied his rope around it, then gestured at the tallest child to bring him one of the babies. A baby went into the sling, and Eiji hefted the child onto his shoulders, where he sat carefully, while Eiji handed up the sling. The boy reached the sling up to Gerhild, who retrieved the baby before sending it back down again.

With a system in place, the children began loading one infant at a time into the sling so Eiji could send them up. His arms burned and his back ached, but he kept up pace, passing up the sling so Gerhild could rescue the babies first. He was on the last one when he heard Solaris shout in pain. He almost jumped, but he kept his hold on the sling and on the child on his shoulders.

"Solaris!" he cried.

Gerhild turned. Solaris had fallen, reverting to human form as she lost consciousness. The Yummy turned toward Gerhild and spotted the babies and child at her side. It tilted its head for a moment before squawking and moving toward her.

"Stay back!" she yelled, scooping up more rocks and throwing them.

The attacks only made the Yummy angrier. It started to slide toward her, and she immediately put herself in front of the children. But a sudden attack from behind threw the Yummy into the nest.

Gerhild looked over in surprise to see OOO. "Your Majesty..."

He glanced only momentarily at the children behind her. Then, with a scan of his Medals, he prepared his final attack.

The second the Yummy fell into the nest, the remaining children crowded around Eiji for protection. Still holding the baby, he helped the boy off his arms and looked around for any options. There was nothing he could attack with, nothing he could shield the children with other than his own body.

"Get down!" he shouted, gesturing for them to stay low.

The Yummy attacked, striking him hard on his back as he crouched over them, refusing to let go of the baby. But before another attack could hit, a burst of heat hit his back, throwing him onto the children before he could do anything to correct his stance. Hot Cell Medals fell down onto him, and he managed to turn his head to see OOO standing in the remaining flames. Their eyes met, and OOO clearly took in the children Eiji was shielding and the sling in his arms.

Eiji tried to stand up, but the pain all over his body was too much. He collapsed, and OOO ran forward, catching him before he could land on the children again. But he could feel his consciousness slipping, and before he could drop the sling, he tried to hold up the baby to OOO. OOO realized what he was doing and scooped up the baby in one hand, and Eiji was able to smile in relief before everything went dark.

* * *

_**Kamen Rider OOO **_**is the property of Toei and Ishimori Productions. Solaris's Mutamit form is based off of Jaguar Van, one of the Neo-Shocker monsters who appeared in **_**Eight Riders vs. Galaxy King,**_** which **_**Megamax**_** was a massive tribute to. Quite a bit of this is based off of **_**Wonderful: The Shogun and the 21 Core Medals,**_** and it also includes references to the various other movies Eiji has appeared in. Namely that I'm not going to overlook that he has time-traveling friends on DenLiner.**

**Overall, this fic ignores the **_**OOO**_** novel by Nobuhiro Mori, the summary of which can be found online. While some details are interesting, it doesn't seem to mesh well with what we see in canon, so I've elected to ignore it and write my own crazy story.**

**I have to own up and admit that a lot of the writing style is inspired by my friend Shaun Garin/drunkpandaren, with whom I've collaborated for many years, so our styles tend to bleed over. Speaking of bleedover, there's influence from Book 4 of **_**The Legend of Korra**_**, which I watched at the time of this writing and was dealing with something that looked very similar to PTSD; the events that happened to Korra in the finale of Book 3 also influenced how I handle what's coming toward the end of the fic.**

**I've done quite a bit of research into life in the 1200s and Thuringia and Germany in roughly that era, so forgive me if I've gotten anything wrong. Alchemy is even harder to work with because **_**OOO**_** kind of runs on magic. And the title comes from a line in Elton John's "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" which proves I'm a massive dork; I have been wanting to use this for an **_**OOO**_** fic for a while now. The chapter title is a loose translation of a line from "Time Judged All."**

**As a warning, while this is not a Stockholm syndrome fic...I'm not going to deny that I've done the research on that, as well as on PTSD, and that Eiji is in a position where he has to depend on Solaris. So I'm trying to cover this carefully, without relying too much on Stockholm syndrome or on its absolutely terrible portrayals in some media.**

**Any quotes from the series come from TV-Nihon's subtitles.**

**Originally posted 11/1/14 at Archive of Our Own.**


	2. Kingdom of Secrets

It was cold.

That was the first thing Eiji could think as consciousness slowly returned. He was underneath some kind of warm blanket, but overall, he could tell his surroundings were cold.

The second thing he noticed was that his entire body was in pain, and that was when he opened his eyes to realize he had no idea where he was.

He sat up, ignoring the pain in his ribs and back. But moving his shoulder was worse—it was stiff, extremely painful, and swollen. It hadn't been hard to sit, at least—the bed he was in was upraised, carved with a canopy suspended above it. He looked around to try to figure out where he was. The walls were stone, and there was no outside light—only candles and lamps, and his eyes slowly adjusted to the dimness. His room was sparsely decorated—there was a chair next to the bed, a washstand with a basin and pitcher, and a tapestry on the wall; no other signs anyone lived there.

He tried to calm his breathing, but he was on high alert. He was injured and had woken up in a place he didn't recognize. He'd been put in that position before, and whatever was going on, he had to keep his wits. He focused on the tapestry—the embroidery pictured a series of circles, connected by various geometric shapes. His eyes widened as he recognized the symbols of the Core Medals, all embroidered within the circles; the shapes and the way they connected was suddenly familiar.

"Gara's device," he whispered.

That sense of danger was becoming more persistent. He pulled off his thick blanket and shivered—he was still shirtless, and the room was cold; it had been early fall when he'd left, was it the same here? His shirt, somewhat torn and definitely wrinkled, was draped on the chair, along with his shawl, belt, and shoelaces. His unlaced boots were next to the bed, and he quickly stuffed his feet inside before pulling on his shirt. Everything still hurt, but by now, he could tell the difference between bruises and breaks, and nothing was broken—yet, at least. His shoulder was probably sprained, so he tied the shawl around himself and used it for a sling.

"Out of bed already?" asked a familiar voice. Eiji froze and turned to see a man standing at the door.

He was older than Eiji expected him to be, apparently past middle-aged, based on the grey showing in his beard, but not yet what he'd consider "old." An orange mantle was over a yellow tunic, embroidered with silver thread and blue and purple gems. Green hose ended in pointed black shoes, and as if there was any doubt that he was the King, a majestic gold crown sat on his head, set with rubies. And if there was any doubt that he was OOO, he wore the Driver as a decorative belt.

And he was speaking Japanese, fluently. Still in shock, Eiji asked, "How..."

"How do I speak your language?" the King asked. "I have always been interested in other lands. But because I could not visit them myself, due to my rule here, I invited some of the greatest minds in the world to study here throughout the years—even one of my alchemists is a bit of a vagabond himself, having traveled far and wide, often to places I never imagined could exist."

The King reminded him of Kougami, though slightly less manic. Though Eiji knew Kougami was descended from the King, he hadn't expected this. He knew the story by what happened after—the King's desire for power got out of control, and he betrayed Ankh, ripping the Core Medals from his body and from the other Greeed. Trying to use them all at once overpowered him, and instead of a godlike vessel for the Medals, he became their tomb.

But then, hadn't Eiji lost control once before too? And hadn't he betrayed Ankh—wasn't that the promise they made to each other when they'd first met? That they would look out for their own self-interests, even if it meant betraying each other in the end?

He was too confused to speak. Too much was going on at once—attempted kidnapping, time travel, children held hostage, language barriers and the strange ways they were overcome, the King he'd sworn never to be like seeming too familiar and close to home...

Seeing the thousand-yard stare beginning to set in, the King gently placed a hand on Eiji's injured shoulder to get his attention. The sudden sensation made him jump, then wince from the movement to his shoulder.

"It seems you still need time to recover," the King noticed. "You slept well past daybreak."

"It's been a day?" Eiji asked, still reeling.

"Yes," the King answered. "Your master asked for you repeatedly from the moment she found out you were asleep. But I assured her that you were being taken care of."

"Solaris is here?" he asked, and the King nodded. "What about that woman—Gerhild?"

The King hesitated briefly before explaining, "She is back in the village, helping rebuild."

"She's okay, though?" Eiji pressed.

"She is unharmed," the King promised. "But beware how much faith you put in her. She is not as trustworthy as she appears."

"I know she must have disappointed you," he said, "when she couldn't get pregnant. But she did everything she could to help protect those children!"

"She was the whole reason the children were endangered in the first place," the King insisted. "That creature, the Yummy, was born from her desire."

"But that doesn't make this her fault!"

The King gave him a sympathetic look—one that made it very hard for Eiji to connect him with the OOO who had killed his alchemists and tried to become a god.

"You're still young," he pointed out. "The world seems easy to divide—those who side with the angels or with devils. Not everything is that simple. I did not banish Gerhild because she failed to bear me a child. I did so because I caught her attempting to steal one of my newborn children."

Again, Eiji found himself too stunned to speak. The action didn't match with what he'd seen of Gerhild—a woman who had tried to attack both him and a Yummy in order to protect the villagers' children. Who had hurried the townspeople out of danger. Who hadn't taken the chance to escape while Solaris fought and Eiji tried to rescue the children, but instead had helped him get them out.

"I thought it was out of grief for her barrenness," the King explained, "so I merely sent her from the castle, rather than casting her out of the kingdom altogether or ordering her execution."

"What..." Eiji started, trying to get his bearings. "What happened to the baby?"

"Unfortunately, it did not survive long," the King replied. "Both it and the mother were ill—it was only a matter of time. Perhaps Gerhild thought she could do better to heal the child, but either way, I could not endanger any more of my children with her presence—her fault or not."

Eiji began to stagger, and the King helped him back over to the bed to sit. "Do not let this tragic event color your impression of my kingdom. It is merely a warning. Not everyone is as trustworthy as they seem."

"But you trust me?" he asked.

The King paused for a moment before answering, "I trust that you ran into danger to save my people's children, at great risk to yourself. You shielded them from attack, and even when I tried to help you, you were more worried about the baby in your arms. I may not know much about you, but I can trust that you have the best intentions, at least." He stepped back. "Rest for now. Your master will check on you soon enough."

Eiji settled back onto the bed, finally giving in and letting the shock run its course. More than the time travel, he was worried about the company he was keeping. A Foundation X agent who tried to kidnap him, but was dedicated to keeping him alive. A young woman who wanted to protect the village's children, but had endangered the King's children. And the King himself, who would one day become everything Eiji never wanted to be, but for now seemed to be heroic and just, and had a great love for learning, much like he and Kougami did. He might have earned that man's trust, but no one had earned his.

Just what would happen if he had to rely on people he couldn't trust?

* * *

After leaving Eiji's room, the King made his way to the chapel. It was normally his custom to retire there sometime after a battle—ostensibly to pray, but rumors were circling now that he had been excommunicated because he would not bow to another being, human or divine. Indeed, prayer was far from the subject on his mind as he stood before the imported stained glass windows, depicting saints and angels.

A curly red feather floated down from the rafters and into his hand—the bird Greeed, Ankh, his spy among their ranks. The knowledge that Ankh was allied with him was a closely guarded secret, one not even the alchemists knew.

"You caused a lot of chaos yesterday," the King said. "That Yummy of yours took all of the village's children."

"It confirmed your suspicions about that woman, though," Ankh's voice answered from above.

"It did," the King admitted. "I'll have to check all of the children of the village myself to be sure." He gestured to the altar, where a pile of Cell Medals waited. "Your payment."

Ankh finally showed himself, descending to perch on the altar. He absorbed the Medals quickly before reporting, "Just like you thought, the Princes tried to take advantage of the attacks. Another wave of knights was waiting to charge in."

"I trust they were taken care of?" the King asked.

"Of course," Ankh replied. "But with your intruders causing even more chaos, I had to retreat."

The King nodded. Another thing he was trying to sort through. "Avoid the area for now. I will have my alchemists take care of the rest."

"Fine by me," Ankh said.

He was about to fly away when the King said, "One last thing." Ankh paused and looked at him, but the King's eyes were on the glass picture of an angel. "Did you get to see much of the intruders?"

"No," Ankh answered flatly. "I wasn't about to put my position in danger."

"They challenged your Yummy," the King pointed out. "The young man even rescued the children."

"Is that so?" Ankh asked, uninterested.

"They're intriguing people," the King mused. "I will have to observe them carefully."

"You do that," Ankh said.

The King paid no attention as Ankh flew up and exited the chapel. There were too many more important things to consider—disposing of the knights, figuring out what to do about Gerhild, and these mysterious intruders, one of whom had recklessly risked his own life for complete strangers.

It was said that angels were messengers of God, and that while they did help humankind, their true loyalty was to God alone. What a luxury, to have a servant who had no desires of their own that could undermine their loyalties—a vessel that could be filled with their master's desires.

The time was drawing closer. He would have to do something permanent about these Greeed, and about Ankh. His alchemists too had their own agendas, with constant rivalry among them. Both had their own projects in mind, and he would reap the benefits from them.

But in the end, wasn't there only one God? Multitudes of angels and saints, but none of them elevated to the same level of divinity as God.

And so, man too could only trust in himself alone.

* * *

There were only so many times Solaris could stand being told that she had to wait to see Eiji. From the moment she'd woken up the night before, she'd heard that he was still asleep, and she'd had to wait. Well into the morning, he still hadn't woken, and her patience wore thin. The data Foundation X had collected indicated that using Medal Combos exhausted him easily, but he had learned to better withstand the strain. His injuries from the rescue were a more likely concern—she'd seen how he'd favored one arm, how much strain he'd put on his body while clearly in pain.

He was awake now, and the King had visited him to find him confused, but as well as could be expected. He still needed to "rest," purportedly, and someone would attend to his wounds. It was at that point that Solaris had had enough and decided to find him herself.

It started with sneaking out of her room—the bedchamber she'd been placed in was better than a cell, but it was certainly meant to be a prison. The key to this was blending in, so when a maid came in to deliver food, she gagged and knocked her out to steal her clothes. Since glasses didn't seem to have been invented yet, she had to hook hers to the neckline of the gown and hide them with the orange surcoat. A pillbox hat was tied to her head, and she kept her gaze down as she picked up the food, so no one might realize she was an unfamiliar face.

As long as it looked like she had a reason to be there, no one questioned her. But if she tried too many rooms, she would draw suspicion on herself quickly. However, if Eiji was injured, he was more likely to have more people coming in and going out, and that narrowed down the search. In fact, there was a steady stream of maids heading into one of the rooms.

She produced her knife and hid it under the food, ready to fight her way out with Eiji if she had to. But when she entered, she didn't see the disaster zone of medieval medicine she was expecting. Instead, there was a large tub in the room, and a bruised Eiji was being bathed by some of the maids.

He looked at her in surprise, recognizing her immediately. "Solaris?"

That was it. She wasn't even going to bother with her cover. She threw down the food and ordered, "Everybody out!"

The maids tried to argue, but the moment they saw the knife, they were quick to run. Getting angry, Eiji stood up, arguing, "There's no reason to threaten them like that! They were only trying to help!"

And Solaris immediately got an eyeful and palmed her forehead, closing her eyes. "Hino..."

It then occurred to Eiji that he was completely naked. With a sheepish "Oh," he sat back down in the tub. Solaris found a towel and threw it at his head.

"Not an ounce of shame in you, is there?" she asked.

"It's not like that," he defended. "I just never had a reason to be embarrassed, between different customs in other countries and just not being interested." When she raised an eyebrow, he said, "It's true. I like people, but I don't _want_ that kind of thing, and I was always the last one to catch on when it came to romance. It's not that I don't _like_ it, but..."

Solaris waved a hand to stop him. "Forget it. You were hurt?"

He cringed, looking down. Most of his body was covered in bruises, and there was the matter of his right shoulder. "I think they were trying to put medicine on me—there were a lot of herbs, at least. But I don't speak much German, so I couldn't ask."

"Compression will do a lot more," she said, finding his shirt and cutting it down into strips.

"I know," he answered. "It's not the first time I've had injuries like this before. At least I can tell this is a pretty minor sprain."

She started wrapping the makeshift bandages securely around his shoulder, though he grimaced from the pain. "You're useless if we have to fight our way out of here."

"I see no reason for you to fight," answered a voice. They looked up to see the King standing at the door this time, this time accompanied by a man in a mask, dressed in orange and purple.

"Gara," Eiji breathed.

"I see my reputation precedes me," the alchemist replied, holding up Eiji's notebook. "Though, it probably shouldn't come as a surprise, considering how detailed your notes are."

The King looked at Solaris seriously. "Your concern for your apprentice is admirable, but I would appreciate it if you did not threaten my people in order to protect him."

Eiji gave Solaris a confused look at the mention of "apprentice," but she only tightened the wrapping on his shoulder, making him wince. "Apologies. He just has a tendency to get himself in trouble without me."

"So it would seem," the King noted. With a look toward Eiji, he added, "I have also heard how you helped rescue the villagers."

"It...well, I didn't do that much," he tried to insist.

"You should not be so humble," the King argued. "My people—and I—are grateful to you."

Eiji went quiet, feeling awkward with the praise, especially from the King of all people. Having two other people he knew as enemies in the room with him right now left him feeling even more uncomfortable and exposed—more than actually being naked and in the bath already did.

Gara set the notebook on Eiji's bed and laid out the rest of his possessions, wrapped in cloth. "I have been examining your belongings. An unusual combination."

"I'm sure," he murmured.

The King picked up a few of the items, looking over them, and that uncomfortable feeling turned into dread. Any second now, he would notice Ankh's Medal.

"Leather bracelet, rather plain, but of decent make," the King noted, looking it over. Next, the charger. "Is this to make fires with?"

"Yes," Solaris answered quickly.

"Bound to a cord? Inventive," he praised. Next was Eiji's phone, dented and the screen broken from the battle. "A mirror?"

Eiji couldn't help but grimace. He could already hear Shingo about the phone; he'd promised he'd be careful with it when Shingo agreed to let him have it. So much for careful. "It was a gift."

Then came the loose change in euros that Eiji had kept with him for small purchases in Germany; the Foundation had covered most of his expenses. "These coins will do you no good here, I'm afraid. But what is the cloth that you've wrapped them in?"

For the first time, he found himself self-conscious about his boxers. "They're...well, they're my underwear."

Both Gara and the King stared at him blankly in confusion. Seeing that Eiji was now blushing and useless, Solaris translated, "His undergarments."

The two men burst into laughter, and the King clapped Eiji on the back, making him grit his teeth from the pain in his body. "That is one way to prevent anyone from robbing you," the King praised. "No thief would be looking for your braies!"

Eiji managed to fake a smile, and the King set everything down. But Gara produced one last item, asking, "And then there is the matter of this sword, and the Medals inside it."

"The sword is a gift," Eiji answered quickly. "But the Medals...they're defective, I think."

Both the King and Solaris looked at Eiji in surprise, and he explained, "Our country tried replicating the research we've heard about from your alchemists, but we couldn't master it. The sword was designed to take Medals and use them for a more powerful attack, but we can only get Cell Medals to work in it safely. When we tried our Core Medals, the explosion landed us in the village unexpectedly."

It was the truth, or close enough to it, and that was what made for the most believable lies. The King looked at the blade and noted, "Strange balance, but beautiful workmanship. I thank you greatly."

Eiji bowed. "You're welcome, Your Majesty."

"I have other matters to attend to right now, so I will leave you," the King declared. "Thank you again for your generous gift."

He walked out, but Gara stayed. There were still items Eiji hadn't seen the King present, so he wasn't at all surprised when Gara held out the broken Core Medal and asked, "I would like to know, however, how you came to possess this."

"It's a long story," he answered. "But the same friend who gave me that mirror gave that to me."

"And how did that friend come by it?" Gara asked. "Imperfectly replicating our work is one thing—this is identical to the Core Medals we have created."

"Believe me, I don't know how it was created," Eiji insisted, honestly. "And if my friend knew, he never told me. He died a few years ago."

Gara regarded him seriously, evaluating the raw emotion on his face. "Your friend's name?"

"Izumi Shingo," he answered automatically. "He was a...well, a peacekeeper back home."

"The name is unfamiliar," Gara murmured. "Not one I recognize from my travels."

"Can you fix it?" Eiji begged.

"I cannot," Gara replied. "There should be nothing that can destroy a Core Medal. Even if restoring it were possible, it would take resources we no longer have."

It was a long shot, but Eiji nodded. It might well take all forty years for Ankh to revive. "I understand. Thank you anyway."

Gara placed the Medal halves inside Eiji's notebook. "I will not tell the King that you have these. Consider them our secret."

"Thank you," he replied.

When Gara finally left the room, Eiji looked Solaris and asked, "What was that about your apprentice?"

"I had to tell the King that we were traveling alchemists from Japan," she explained. "It was the only way I could justify any of what they'd taken from you."

"Oh," he replied.

Watching him, she said, "You know, you may not act like it, but you really are a politician's son."

"Huh?" he asked, puzzled.

"It was genius telling the King that the sword was a gift," she explained. "It takes suspicion off of us, and it ensures that we always know where it will be."

Bracing himself carefully, he got up, wrapping the towel around his waist. "At least he bought the part about the Medals being defective. We might stand a chance getting them back if we say we need to work on them more."

She turned as he reached for his underwear. "You disarm people by being open and friendly, but you know how to maneuver your way through ambition and even manipulate people into doing what you want, by making them think they're doing what they want."

He cringed, pulling on his pants. "I'm not sure I like it when you say it like that."

"You have to admit, it's a gift," she pointed out.

"I think of it more like this," he said, finally walking over to her, mostly clothed. "I'm not naive enough to trust that someone's going to do something because it's the right thing to do. That's what got me in trouble back in Africa. Instead...maybe Ankh was right. Maybe deep down, everyone wants to look out for themselves first. So, understanding their desires and finding a compromise—that's the only way I can get things done."

She gave a smile of approval. He wasn't sure he liked that either.

"So what next?" she asked. "Or have you not figured that part out yet?"

He wrapped his shawl around himself. The castle was drafty, and now that he was wet and with his shirt sacrificed as bandages, he was even colder. "Right now, I think I'd settle for a new shirt."

There was something resembling sympathy as she said, "I'll see what I can get."

He nodded. "But I'm still worried about something—the King didn't have my OOO Driver."

Understanding, she nodded back. "Gara asked you about the broken Medal. He would have asked about that."

"It must be back in the forest still," he said.

He was about to go out the door, but she shook her head. "You're wet and shivering. You'll go hypothermic if you try to set out now, not to mention your injuries from before. We'll search for it tomorrow."

"But..." he protested.

She handed him his notebook. "If you feel like you need to do something, start taking notes. There's a lot to learn, if we make it out of here."

His resolve returned, and he took the book, insisting, "We _will_ make it out of here. I promise."

She nodded as she left, and he sat down on the bed. Ankh's Medal fell out of the notebook, right into his hand. That was something he'd have to take care of first, so he took his bracelet and bit into the knots holding it to the toggle that fastened it. It came apart as a long string of leather, and he placed the Medal on the inside of his right wrist before wrapping the leather several times around it and tying it tightly into place.

"I guess everybody's got to have a secret," he said with a humorless smile.

Only when he was sure his was safe did he take his pen and notebook and begin to write.

* * *

The King had a secret meeting place for everyone he needed to conspire with. For Ankh, it was the chapel. For Gara, it was his personal lab in a tower that had been long since closed off. For the rest of his alchemists, it was a dovecote.

There had not been doves there in years now, and it functioned well as a lab for Masters Wang Shi Qi, Badr ibn Khazim, and Thomas Willeson. Together with Master Gara, they had created the Core Medals and the five Greeed, but in recent months, their partnership had broken apart. Other attempts at Core Medals failed dismally—a black set that never activated, a purple set made from extinct animals that just could not summon the desire needed to form a Greeed. It had caused in-fighting and jealousy among the alchemists, particularly against Gara, who had retreated to create his next project in secret. But the others had their own project in mind, one that they hoped would fulfill the King's goal to become a god.

There they sat, rendering their samples down to their very quintessence. Caustic chemicals dissolved noble metals and Cell Medals alike, slowly forming threads of silver crystal within the beakers.

"Your Majesty," Wang noted, still looking over the Diana's Tree he was creating. "We have finished with the knights, as you ordered, but progress is not going as we had hoped. The process continues to end at silver."

"I may have a lead on the solution," the King said. "But first, what do you make of these?"

The alchemists stopped as the King set three items on the table before them: the O-Scanner, the OOO Driver, and a small red book.

Willeson picked up the Driver and Scanner. "These are identical to the ones we created for you. How is this possible?"

Khazim, however, took the book. "Japan Passport," he read.

"Surname: Hino, Given name: Eiji," the King recited. "Date of birth..."

Willeson looked over Khazim's shoulder and declared, "That can't be right! The date is almost eight-hundred years from now!"

"Is this your mysterious visitor?" Khazim asked.

"One of them," the King replied. "He is currently under the protection of a woman calling herself Solaris, who claims to be his alchemy master. Both this book and the belt were in his possession when I found him."

Behind his mask, Wang gave the King a skeptical look. "Do you believe that this man is one of your descendants? From the other side of the world?"

"No," the King said. "But I do think it is possible that he may be the OOO of the distant future. For this reason, I would like to you to examine him and determine his suitability for this project."

The alchemists shared looks among themselves. Finally, Willeson said, "Even if this were true, how can we be sure that he would produce better results than the rest of our subjects? Those of confirmed noble blood?"

"Because there is something different about him," the King insisted. "And if you observe him, I'm sure you will agree."

They looked at one another again, silently conferring. Finally, Wang picked up the passport and said, "An OOO from the future might well be what we need. It does no harm for us to learn more."


	3. Watchers in the Light

By the next morning, Eiji was eager to begin the search for his missing Driver. He got up, pulled on the red tunic Solaris had managed to get for him the day before, and stuffed the rest of his belongings in his pockets. He belted his shawl around himself the way he usually did for the cold, and paused only a moment to pull out his phone and take a few pictures of the tapestry—that way, when he did get home, the Kougami Foundation would be able to retrieve the data and have some visuals of an artifact that hadn't survived to modern times. Then he ripped a page from his notebook and scribbled a note to Solaris before setting off.

It was still hard to move his right arm without pain, so he took care to keep it steady as he made his way toward the village. Finding the spot where he and Solaris had originally landed wasn't easy because of all of chaos from the attack, but as long as he remembered the smell that greeted them—human waste somewhere nearby—he knew he was close. So he methodically searched the whole area closest to that smell, closing in as much as he could.

But it finally got to the point where he was retching just as badly as Solaris had, and he had nothing to show for it—nothing other than the village cesspit, where everything was dumped.

"I think it's safe to say it didn't land in there," he said, gagging as he backed away.

But something seemed...off. He'd seen cesspits before, and open latrines. He knew there should have been flies buzzing around, maggots feeding on the waste. But the whole area was remarkably insect-free.

"That's not right," he realized, and he pulled out his phone again and took a few pictures before writing his observations in his notebook. He wasn't an entomologist, but even he knew that there should have been bugs around. And for that matter, the forest was surprisingly quiet—he should have heard birds, but he didn't.

A woman's voice called out to him. He looked over to try to explain he didn't speak the language when he recognized her.

"Gerhild."

She looked just as surprised as he was. "Eiji?" Then she gestured to what he was doing, as if to ask what it was.

"Oh, uh..." He stood up and scratched his head, trying to think of the best translation. Failing to, he just answered, "It's okay."

She nodded, though hesitantly, and started to make her way back to the village center. Then, realizing that Eiji was still standing there, she gave him a questioning look, as if she expected him to follow.

He hesitated. The news the King had told him the day before had made him wary, but he still wasn't sure what he was supposed to believe. But he'd been in that situation more often than he cared to admit, and so he followed her.

All around, people were rebuilding homes, using freshly-cut wood from the forest as frames. Farm animals were corralled as best as they could, and children with no chores left to do ran around in the street. When they saw Eiji, several of them ran over and started hugging him, pulling on his clothes and arms. He winced, trying to keep his right arm straight, but he used his left to pat their heads.

"They were under the impression you'd died," the King said, walking over with a masked man in a coarse white robe.

"Your Majesty," Eiji greeted, surprised as he bowed slightly.

All around him, the villagers stopped what they were doing and bowed. Gerhild did too, nervously.

"Excuse me," she finally said in German. "I should go."

The King watched her carefully as she left, and Eiji felt incredibly tense. Neither one of them was telling him the full truth—this, at least, he was sure of.

"Allow me to introduce another of my alchemists, Master Badr ibn Khazim," the King said, gesturing to the man in the robe and mask.

"Arabic?" Eiji asked, cautiously.

"You speak the language?" Khazim asked, in fluent Arabic, despite the differences in dialect and time.

"Much better than this language," he admitted with a grin, offering his left hand to shake.

Pleased at the connection the two had made, the King said in Japanese, "I have told my alchemists about your deeds in trying to protect the village. Master Khazim was very interested in meeting you."

"How did you know I would be here?" Eiji asked, trying to hide his suspicion.

"We didn't," the King answered. "I was helping to provide wood to the villagers to rebuild." He touched the sword at his side. "This remarkable sword you gave me has done a lot of good."

He smiled, though hesitantly. "I'm glad."

"Is your arm all right?" Khazim asked, watching the way Eiji favored his shoulder.

"Oh, this?" he asked, rubbing it. "I pulled it during the fight."

"Keep it under cool water," Khazim recommended. "Your injury is warm—cooling it will help balance things out."

"Oh," Eiji answered awkwardly. Medieval medicine was also not one of his strong points. "Okay."

"Have you eaten yet?" the King asked.

"Not yet," he answered. "I headed out almost as soon as I woke up..."

He handed Eiji a purse full of coins. "Take these to the baker, then. Tell him you need enough bread to feed all of these people." Then, putting his hand on a young boy's head, he added, "And of course, sweets for the children."

"Of course," he agreed, nodding. "Thank you."

But the King didn't seem to hear him. He was looking intently at the boy, as if he was trying to find something in him.

* * *

When Solaris found the note Eiji had left for her, she was far from pleased. He had no obligation to trust her, true, but at least she was concerned about his safety. His death would not help Foundation X in the least, and he seemed determined to spite her by trying to get himself killed at every possible opportunity. She was enraged enough to throw her knife at the pitcher of water on her washstand, shattering it.

"I'll replace that!" an unnaturally cheerful voice chirped.

She turned to see a girl with pink hair, dressed as a jester, and holding a bell. "Who are you?"

"I'm Bell," she answered, still unbothered by Solaris's temper. "Master Gara asked me to serve you since none of the maids will come near you."

Well, this was just great. No Eiji, and now she had a likely spy sent by one of the King's alchemists, the very one who knew Eiji had a broken Core Medal in his possession. Bell was already wiping up the water and setting the broken pottery and the knife aside, with an unnerving smile.

Time to change tactics. Maybe she should take advantage of her situation, get information Eiji didn't have about the Core Medals.

"Is your Master in?" she asked.

"He is working on a project," Bell answered. "He's asked that no one disturb him."

The response was calm, and still too chipper to be human. Undaunted, Solaris asked, "Would this project happen to be related to the Core Medals?"

"I can't say," she said, and this time, there was a hint of an edge to the cheerfulness.

Don't agitate too much. She still didn't know what Bell was capable of—though she figured Eiji probably did. Instead, she trailed off, "It's a shame my apprentice set off so early this morning. I was going to ask if we both could observe your master, so we could learn what we've done wrong with our Core Medals."

Bell paused, and for a moment, her expression went blank—Solaris was certain now that she was some kind of homunculus and a spy. As if she'd received orders, she snapped her head back up and smiled again, saying, "Master Gara would be happy to show you, but not at this moment. The sample is working with is very unstable, and he does not want any interruptions."

"I understand," Solaris answered smoothly. "Let him know I said thank you."

"Of course!" Bell chirped.

Solaris began to walk out the door when Bell added, "Oh, and if you're looking for the King too, he should be in the village with your apprentice!"

She didn't even try to hide her fear as she broke into a sprint.

* * *

Eiji spent the walk to the bakery reviewing what German he knew and trying to think of the words for "bread" and "sweets." He managed the first and remembered the word for "apple," figuring he could probably ask for something like that. Numbers were easy enough to review, and he added up all of the servings needed.

But the baker didn't seem to be happy about the order, and started arguing with him, while he tried to stammer out an explanation.

"Eiji?" Gerhild asked, walking in to see the baker yelling at him. "What's wrong?"

He looked at her in relief. He still couldn't speak the language well, but at least he could get her help to translate the situation for him. He held out the money and explained, "The King wants bread. Everyone. Children too."

Nodding, she gave a more fluent request to the baker, who also started arguing with her. But she was able to reason with him. Eiji read the surprise on her face at something the baker said, and she turned back to him.

"Bread only," she said. "No sweets."

"Why?" he asked.

"No fruit," she explained. "No honey. Only bread."

First flies. Now fruit and honey. Something was _wrong,_ but he only answered, "Thank you," to the baker and took the loaves of bread. Gerhild took the other half and helped him carry them.

Only bread. The local fruits couldn't be out of season this early. And why no honey either—was something wrong with the bees? He'd seen famine before, and this was starting to feel uncomfortably familiar.

"What's wrong?" Gerhild asked.

"Nothing," he insisted with a smile. "Thank you."

They made it back to the construction area, where Eiji was grateful to completely switch back to Japanese.

"Your Majesty, I'm sorry," he said. "I was only able to get the bread. The baker was out of honey for any sweets."

"Even with rationing, then," the King noted. "I apologize. With all of the Greeed attacks, we've been running into food shortages. I've been saving imports from other kingdoms and distributing them as needed. I will have to distribute more, then."

"It's all right," Eiji insisted. It made sense, but the feeling that something was off still lingered. "If you don't mind, I'd like to check the forest. There's a chance that there might be some fruit there."

"Take Master Khazim with you," the King offered. "He can help you carry what you gather and ensure you don't get lost in the woods."

Some instinct in Eiji was telling him to refuse, but he couldn't think of a way to. So hesitantly, he said, "All right," and set off with Khazim into the forest.

* * *

Solaris was at the edge of the village when she saw the red feathers heading beyond the forest. An immediate sense of dread hit her, and she raced into town, spotting Gerhild with a number of villagers.

"Where is he?" she asked.

"Who?" Gerhild asked.

"Hino," she growled.

"He just left for the forest," she explained. "One of the alchemists went with him."

There was a degree of concern in her voice, but her eyes were on the children, as they accepted food from the King. The King himself seemed highly invested in them, and Gerhild's caution was setting off warning bells for Solaris.

"You owe us an explanation," she whispered to Gerhild. Gerhild looked over at her, but there was no surprise in her expression. "But not right now."

She tore off and started heading to the forest. Ankh was there, somewhere, possibly targeting Eiji. She wasn't about to let that happen.

When she finally caught up to him, he was with the alchemist, searching through bushes and shrubs.

"Hino!" she called out.

He looked over. "Solaris?"

"What are you doing here?" she demanded. "You should be back at the castle!"

"Sorry," he apologized. "But the King wanted to treat the children to some kind of sweets, but the bakery was out of fruit and honey. So I thought I'd try to look for something out here."

He sounded sorry, but she couldn't help but wonder if this was another misdirection. His glance was straying toward the alchemist, who seemed to be a little too focused on picking nuts off the ground. Another likely spy.

A flash of red caught her eye. Then a glimmer of silver. Eiji turned, and for a moment, it looked like something was about to form on his forehead, but it vanished suddenly. Whatever was coming hit him, and his head snapped back, and he cried out in pain.

"Are you all right?" Khazim asked.

"Yeah," Eiji answered. "What was..."

He saw the Cell Medal on the ground. Solaris saw the Greeed. With a shout of "Get down!" she tackled him to the ground as Ankh threw a fireball at them.

She heard Eiji's breath hitch as he saw Ankh. This was the worst possible time for him to be triggered. She looked to Khazim, warning in German, "He's still injured. We need to get him out of here."

"This way," Khazim insisted.

Ankh tried to throw another fireball after them, but Solaris grabbed Eiji and pulled him along after her. He was responding well enough to break out of her grip and run on his own, but he kept looking behind him to see where Ankh was flying after them.

"That Medal," he said, his voice a little too shaky for her to feel comfortable.

"It missed," she insisted.

But another fireball was coming his way. There wasn't enough time for Eiji to dodge, or for Solaris to throw him out of the way. He closed his eyes and braced for it to hit him...

Just as he did, someone leapt over him, holding a shield out to deflect the fire. OOO turned back to him, holding the insignia from his chest as a shield.

"Are you all right?" he checked.

Eiji opened his eyes, surprised both at the King being there so quickly and at the shield. He hadn't known that OOO could do that.

"Uh, yes," he answered finally. "I'm okay."

"Good," the King answered. "Take this chance to escape."

"The way out is through here," Khazim instructed.

Solaris started to take Eiji by the shoulders, but he shook his head, following after them. His heart was still pounding, so he took it at a slower pace than they did, keeping sure to keep them in sight at all times as he tried to catch his breath.

Something suddenly grabbed onto his ankle. He shouted in panic, trying to shake it off and kick it away before he saw a bloodied arm, leading back to a dying man in armor.

He dropped to his knees, breathing heavily. Trying desperately to think of the German words to ask how he was, all he could manage was "Are you..."

The man said something in response. Eiji didn't understand it, but he forced himself to remember it all the same.

"I'll get you out of here," he promised in Japanese.

The man didn't respond, but Eiji struggled to pick him up all the same. But with the man unable to even try to stand and while weighed down with armor, he couldn't lift him. Eventually, Solaris and Khazim realized he wasn't following them and turned back.

"What are you doing?" Solaris demanded.

"He needs help," Eiji insisted. "We've got to get him out of here."

"Look at his armor," Khazim explained, pointing out the man's surcoat. "This man wears the colors of a traitor to the King. You would only be saving him for the executioner."

The man managed to take Eiji's arm, his grip weak. He whispered something, glaring at Khazim the whole time. The alchemist started to take a step forward, but Solaris did first. She pulled Eiji out of the way and made a movement toward the man. Eiji never saw a weapon, but he saw the light go out in the man's eyes right after.

It was the worst possible way to remind him just what kind of person he had to rely on.

"He was already dying," she explained. Her hands were still empty, but he had no doubt in what she'd done. After all, she was a Mutamit; she didn't necessarily need a weapon to use her powers. "Nothing you could have done would have saved him."

But he couldn't take his eyes off the dead face. Too many horrible memories were bubbling to the surface, trying to boil over. He was shaking, tense, ready to burst. But he couldn't—he was frozen in time, caught between this death and the others he'd failed to prevent. The bracelet tied on his wrist suddenly felt unbearably tight.

Solaris took him by the arm and pulled him along. He wanted to fight back, but he couldn't.

This wasn't the way he had to fight back.

* * *

There were times when memories caught up with Eiji and threatened to overwhelm him. It was a different kind of time travel, trapping him in a past he didn't want to forget, but certainly didn't want to re-experience. It wasn't always seeing things or hearing them, but the emotion alone—the past emotion hitting him all at once—that hurt and made him shut himself down.

He was silent when they made it back to the village. There was too much going on for him to withdraw completely, but the first chance he got, he slipped away to a quiet place and sat down.

It had always helped to try to fight through it. Push down the pain, deny himself of his "self," and help others or fight to protect others until it faded away. After all, if you're no longer yourself, your experiences can't hurt you—they happened to a person you no longer are.

His friends had stopped him from doing that, and filling himself with their love and friendship had helped make the pain less intense, the emotions less present, the triggers less potent. It was always real, but the feel of it, the feeling like it was going to happen again, was less so.

But here, there was no one he could trust to refill his heart. Solaris was an amoral murderer who planned to experiment on him. Gerhild was potentially untrustworthy. The alchemists unnerved him—after all, Gara would one day become his enemy. And he still didn't know what to think about the King.

The King and Ankh were working together; he remembered Ankh telling him that. But it was a secret—that whole fight was a sham just to keep their alliance hidden. Seeing Ankh attack him had hurt, worse than he'd been prepared for. This was long before Ankh became his friend; of course, he would attack. But it didn't make it any less hard to deal with.

He rubbed at his forehead. The Medal had bounced right off, making it impossible to form a Yummy from his desire. At least, this was something he had _some_ control over. He had to carefully control his desire, between the emptiness of the past, which had nearly overcome him as PuToTyra, to the inherent greed of OOO itself. He hadn't been able to feel it before, but reawakening his desire, rediscovering his dream, had given him reason to work toward maintaining a balance—not too much denial, not too much desire. Having his friends made it so much easier.

He didn't have them now. He didn't have anyone. The last time he'd talked to them, Hina had asked if he was going to make it back for his birthday. He hadn't been sure, but they promised that they'd throw him a party if he did. Chiyoko would close the restaurant for the day, and everyone still in Japan would try to make it.

For the first time in his life, he felt homesick. Not for a place or even a time, but for the people—Hina, Shingo, and Chiyoko, Date and Goto, even Satonaka and Kougami. And Ankh, but that was moot now.

He'd just gotten his emotions back under control when Solaris came over, throwing bread his way.

"Eat," she ordered. "I'm not having you pass out today."

A spark of anger formed. It was better than numbness, and he shot back, "Why? Don't want me to die before Foundation X can cut me open?"

"Vivisection comes after the stress tests," she deadpanned. "Psychological and physical, testing your transformation ability and the affects of your emotional state on your powers. Before that are the blood tests to analyze everything in your genes, proteins, and hormones. Only then do you go under the knife."

He was still glaring. But he took a bite of the bread anyway.

"I want you to understand something," she said. "I'm protecting you _only_ because you're important to Foundation X. I'm not here to protect every single person you come in contact with. I do what I need to to keep us _both_ alive."

An ache replacing the spark—a reminder of what had happened earlier, and why she'd done it. He took a breath and said, "That man said something."

"It was a warning," she said quietly.

"What kind?" he asked.

"About the alchemist," she said. "Don't let him, or any others, get you alone. And don't let on about _anything_, understand?"

Another reason to feel unsettled. "There... He said something else. Before you found me." At Solaris's cautious look, he repeated what he'd heard, the best he could. Her expression, already serious, seemed graver. "What does it mean?"

"It means other towns and villages have fallen," she said. "Everyone else is dead."

Coldness. Fear. That was what Eiji felt right now. He swallowed hard and asked, "What do we do?"

Cheers and laughter erupted from the crowd. The King was back, with a bounty of foods—grain, meat, honey, and fruit.

Eiji hadn't seen a single insect, a single hive, in the forest. Nor had he heard a single birdcall. As he looked around, he didn't see any chickens or geese among the farm animals, no large animals like cattle. There was no fish at the butcher's and no cats in the streets.

They were very specific classes of animals missing, and now, there were humans dying. He didn't know what it meant yet, but he didn't like it one bit.

"Don't leave my sight, understand?" she said. "We'll figure out sleeping arrangements tonight."

He could only nod. For the first time in a while, he was honestly afraid for his life. And he wasn't sure why.

* * *

Wang and Willeson were still examining Eiji's possessions and their experiment when Khazim entered. He tossed over the Cell Medal, and Wang caught it without breaking his concentration.

"A Cell Medal?" Willeson asked. "Surely, you must have found something more interesting than that."

"The bird Greeed tried to create a Yummy out of our future OOO," he explained. "The Medal deflected off of him."

"Impossible," Willeson sneered.

"I would have thought so too, had I not seen it myself," Khazim insisted. "He and his so-called master tried to hide it, but the Medal came right for him. Yet a slot would not form."

"No one could possibly have that much control over their own desires," Willeson argued.

"There is something about his nature, though," Khazim said. "One of the knights we were sent to render survived, injured. He tried to carry him to safety, and would have if his master hadn't killed the knight."

"It proves nothing," Willeson objected.

"What are your thoughts on the master?" Wang asked, holding the Medal against the passport.

"Treat her with extreme caution," Khazim advised. "She understands the language of this country, and she heard the knight warning him about us, but she killed him all the same—likely to protect herself, and him. If she suspects that his life may be in danger, she will be a dangerous adversary."

"Very interesting," he mused. "Perhaps we should investigate him as well, Master Willeson."

"If we do," Willeson said, still resistant, "then we had better be careful. Gara has sent one of his homunculi to attend to the woman. He appears to have an interest in them too."

"Then perhaps, while we are at it, we should see what Master Gara has been working on," Wang decided. "It may prove enlightening."

The other masters nodded and resumed their great work. It was possible that this time, they would reach their goal.


	4. The World's One and Only Truth

Following Bell's visit that morning, Solaris wasn't comfortable having Eiji stay in her room. It was against her good judgment to trust that his room was safe, but he hadn't had Bell drop in on him, at least. With strict instructions to call for her if anyone else came into the room, she headed back into her own room to take what little she'd need there.

He sat on the floor, writing in his notebook about everything he'd noticed and suspected in the forest. He looked up, tense, when he heard the door open, but relaxed slightly when he saw her.

"What do you remember about the Tokugawa clan?" he asked, writing out a note.

She raised an eyebrow. "Why the sudden interest in Japanese history?"

He gave a one-sided shrug. "They're descended from the Minamoto, right?"

"So they say," she replied. "Tokugawa Ieyasu was originally Matsudaira Motoyasu, and his clan claimed descent from the Minamoto."

He nodded, not offering anything else, so she asked, "Is it important?"

"Maybe," he replied. "By the way, you can take the bed. I'll be fine on the floor."

"You have a shoulder sprain and bruised ribs," she said flatly. "We'll share." When he hesitated, she mocked, "I thought you weren't interested in _that._"

"_That_ isn't the problem," he replied, his voice cold as he glared at her. Still, he held up his note, reading in Japanese, "I don't know who's listening."

Solaris took the note, then held it up to a candle to burn it. As the fire destroyed it, she said, "Then there shouldn't be any problem. Unless you snore."

"Snoring's not a problem either," he argued as he climbed up. "Nightmares might be."

"If you do bother me, then you can take the floor. Happy?" she said, blowing out the candle.

It should have been hard sleeping with the enemy in his bed, but somehow, Eiji closed his eyes and fell to sleep. But it didn't mean his dreams were peaceful.

He'd just turned nineteen when he arrived in North Africa. The first week was fine, and he befriended a lot of the children in the school he was helping with—one little girl in particular. But it was impossible to ignore the war as it came to the village. Roadside bombs killing people—he tried to run in and rescue survivors, but other people had to tear him away before a second blast could kill him. Human kindness itself was becoming a weakness—anyone who tried to help was killed in secondary explosions, and he had to watch them die, afraid to go in and help anyone else. He watched rocket attacks, felt buildings shake as he took cover, realized that nowhere was safe because everything would be destroyed.

He'd lived a privileged life before that—youngest son of a prominent Tokyo politician. He'd never known what it was like to be hungry. But money he thought was supposed to go toward food was redirected to soldiers, who cut off their supply routes, and just as a famine was about to set in. When food stores were low, he started rationing things out, cutting his own shares smaller, trying to keep the weakest people alive, above their protests. When they started dying, he was almost out of food himself. He watched others around him die of malnutrition, injuries, and illnesses that should have been easily treated—would have been, if the world was the way he'd thought it was when he first set out on his travels. They called it an attempt at genocide, later. Civil war. All sorts of international legal jargon that was supposed to mean something, but didn't when you couldn't do anything about it. In the moment, it was something far worse than words could describe. One by one, he watched the children he'd met die.

The girl had just watched her parents die. He'd tried to protect her, wanted to desperately. But she cried in the middle of the road, too weak to escape as the next rocket struck. He reached for her, surrounded by rubble he was too weak to climb over. He never made it. Neither did she.

He opened his eyes, his heart racing. Solaris was still asleep next to him—his nightmares hadn't woken her.

Carefully, he sat up, wiping the cold sweat from his face. He was still shaking. He took a breath, held it, then exhaled, and did so until he was steady enough to climb out of bed. Making his way in the dark, he found the wash basin and poured out some water to wash his face. The sensation of cold water and the way it soaked into his bracelet and slipped underneath Ankh's Medal to his wrist helped bring him back to the present. Already, he was beginning to think that he might have to wrap something else between the Medal and his wrist so it wouldn't cut into him.

He dipped his towel into the water and put it on his shoulder, and tried to relax. He doubted he was going to fall asleep again. Better to wait it out until dawn.

He sat in the chair by the bed and rested his head against the wall. He could rest for now. No sleep, no dreams, no nightmares.

He never noticed how Solaris quietly watched him, never taking her eyes off him as he defied his own expectations and fell back to sleep.

* * *

The sun hadn't yet risen, but several of the villagers had gathered together in the town church, their young children still asleep in their arms.

"What are we going to do?" asked a mother. "The King can't possibly be fooled forever."

"We should try leaving for another village," a father insisted. "Eventually make our way out of the kingdom."

"It's too risky," another argued.

"But if we stay here, we'll die," another insisted.

One woman looked at Gerhild, who sat with her head lowered and hands clasped in prayer. "This is on you. If you hadn't gotten the King involved when that Yummy attacked..."

"The King still would have gotten our children one way or another," a man reasoned. "We all agreed to this. To prevent any more deaths."

"Maybe," Gerhild murmured, "maybe we should take a chance on the traveler, Eiji. The one who rescued everyone."

"This is dangerous enough," another man protested. "We can't risk bringing in an outsider who doesn't even speak our language."

"He's staying at the castle," someone else pointed out. "Obviously, he's close to the King."

"He's more worried about the children than anything," she argued. "He volunteered to help find them without knowing anything about what was going on. He risked his life to protect them from attack. He organized the children for rescue and even insisted on handing over one of the babies first when the King was trying to help _him_."

"No," the fourth man said. "We will avoid any more risks. Whatever a man he may be, he is in the castle now. If we are to protect these children and our own, we must avoid any additional risks to their secrecy."

"Then what will happen when the King realizes what we've done?" another woman asked.

Nobody answered, but Gerhild felt the unspoken truth. If and when the truth came out, she would have to be sacrificed to protect as many people as possible. It was a risk she'd long ago accepted.

* * *

Hands. There were hands against Eiji's arms, gently holding them down. He opened his eyes, and there was Solaris standing in front of him, carefully pressing his arms to his sides.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

She let go and backed up. "I wasn't sure if you'd take a swing at me if I woke you up. This was safer."

"Didn't know I fell asleep," he admitted, getting up.

As he started to get his bearings, Solaris held out a note. It read, "Did you find the Driver?"

He shook his head and unwrapped his bracelet to see his wrist was raw and red right where the Medal was. Just as he'd thought, it was beginning to rub too hard against his skin. With some regret, he tore up his spare underwear and tied it around his wrist before tucking in the Medal and re-wrapping the leather.

"I want to check out the village again," he said quietly as he tied his bracelet. "Something was bothering me the other day."

Solaris was burning the note. Quietly, she warned, "Tell me later."

Someone knocked on the door just as Eiji finished his last knot. He froze, but Solaris finished disposing of the ashes and warned him, "I'll get it."

She readied her knife behind the door just in case it was a threat. While Eiji was unnerved by the sight of the blade again, he was tensed and ready to run. Slowly, she opened the door, only to see a familiar homunculus on the other side, ringing her bell.

"Bell," she said, her voice clipped.

"Hi!" she greeted, setting down her bell. "You weren't in your room last night, so this seemed like the best place to look!"

Eiji had met the Bells before and had found them unsettling then. The fact that they had kept such close tabs on Solaris was even more troubling.

"He had an eventful day yesterday, and I decided to watch him closely through the night," Solaris answered smoothly. "He's not good at admitting if he's been hurt. But he seems well enough now."

"Master Gara would like to see you in his tower," Bell said. "As soon as you're both ready, I'll take you."

"Thank you," she replied before closing the door. After a few minutes, she whispered, "You're going to have to change your plans for today. I managed to convince Gara we wanted to observe his work."

"He's supposed to fight me one day," he whispered back.

"Then try to keep a low profile for once."

He looked at the door, almost hopefully. Still, no DenLiner coming to rescue him. "How are we not changing time?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "Which means two things—either anything we do is meaningless..."

"Or it needs us in order to happen," he answered, trying to fight back a shiver.

Solaris was silent for a moment, then handed him his shawl. "We'll just have to keep figuring it out as we go."

Once they were completely cleaned up and dressed, they opened the door to see Bell still waiting. Signaling for them to stay quiet, she led them to a roaring fireplace in the great hall. Despite his overall discomfort and distrust of her, Eiji almost burst out shouting when he watched Bell walk straight toward the flames. But once she did, he could see that the flames were being reflected by a series of mirrors—the fire was real, but not as close to her as it appeared, creating a narrow passageway. They followed her through, up a tall, spiraling staircase leading to a door, which opened suddenly to reveal Gara's lab.

It was just the way Eiji remembered it from the brief time he'd fought there, except the bottomless pit was not yet there. Gara sat by his devices on a chair very similar to a throne, with various chemicals all around him.

"These..." Eiji realized. "These are used to make Core Medals, right?"

"Correct," Gara answered, not looking up from a beaker.

He started to take out his notebook to write everything down, but Bell handed him a pair of leather gloves.

"Master Gara would like you to retrieve a specimen from its tank so he can take a sample," she said.

"Uh, okay," he answered, putting on the gloves.

He wasn't sure what kind of specimen it might be, or why he'd need gloves to handle it. But then, Gara warned, "Be sure it doesn't bite you," and he saw exactly why.

It was a snake. _Of course_ it was a snake—and a cobra at that. Eiji forgot himself and jumped back with a scream, and Solaris ran over and clamped her hand over his mouth.

"Get a hold of yourself," she hissed. "It's just a snake!"

He was frozen in place, his breathing rapid and shallow. His words muffled by her hand, he choked out, "I'm sorry, I just really..._really_ hate snakes!"

"The sample?" Gara insisted, paying no attention to Eiji's increasing panic. "I do not want this emulsion to separate. It took all day yesterday to prepare."

"Of course," Solaris insisted, reaching into the tank barehanded and pulling out the cobra, holding its mouth closed so it couldn't bite.

Handing her a knife, Bell said, "He needs a skin sample without blood."

Solaris placed the snake in Eiji's hands and growled, "Do not move. Or the snake is the last thing you're going to need to worry about."

Don't move. Don't let go. The words repeated in his mind like a mantra as he stood frozen, clamping the cobra's mouth closed and holding it out for Solaris to scrape skin cells from. If he moved, she would miss and draw blood, ruining the experiment somehow. If he let go, the cobra would get free and bite someone. But if he kept holding it, it kept trying to squirm in his hands, and despite his gloves, he could imagine he felt the snake's scales against his skin, cold and rough—no, it wasn't his imagination anymore. It was too long for him to hold completely, and its tail started to coil around his ankle, reaching underneath his pant leg. He looked at Solaris in panic, but she only said, "Almost there," and expected him to stay completely still. Gara didn't seem to have any more interest in him at all, with his inability to explain how he'd gained a broken Core Medal and his apparent incompetence with laboratory animals.

"That should be enough," he finally said. "Bring it to me."

Solaris walked over with a length of skin, while Eiji's arms began to shake as he held the cobra. His injured shoulder was aching, but the sensation of snakeskin against his ankle was his main concern, along with the venomous fangs still held at bay with one of his hands.

"Bell, remove the specimen from him," Gara instructed. "It was difficult to transport here, and I do not need him killing it by mistake."

Eiji couldn't believe it. Here he was staving off a panic attack, and Gara was worried about the snake? But Bell came over and unwound the cobra from his ankle and took it from him, placing it back into the tank. He finally got himself to move, and he backed away as quickly as he could. Solaris finally took him and sat him down for a bit, giving him a chance to control his breathing, forcing himself to breathe more deeply and evenly.

"On top of everything else, you're afraid of snakes?" she whispered angrily. He managed to nod, and she groaned. "Just write."

That he could still manage. He took out his notebook and pen as she turned back to Gara and said, "I apologize for my apprentice. I think he'll do better taking notes than participating right now."

"Very well," Gara replied, placing the skin in the beaker. The contents slowly started to take an orange color. Eiji watched the reaction and started writing everything he observed. "This experiment is nearing its end anyway."

"What will the end result be?" Solaris asked politely.

"A set of three Core Medals," he answered, swirling around the contents of the beaker.

Eiji stopped writing for a moment in shock. A cobra. How hadn't he seen this before? They were the orange Medals—the ones Gara had created just before the King had gone out of control.

"Only three?" Solaris asked, surprised.

"There is no reason to reduce their power by spreading it out among ten Medals, then removing one to create a Greeed," Gara insisted. "It is a waste of resources and energy. Better to use little of the sample, only to distill its power, than to collect an overabundance of specimens just to create desire."

"Create desire?" Eiji repeated.

"By killing them," Bell answered brightly. "In rendering the specimens to their essence, the desire to live helps spark the Greeed's creation."

A horrible pit opened in Eiji's stomach, but he wrote it down all the same. Covering his reaction, Solaris mused, "That may have been where our country went wrong. We may not have collected a large enough sample."

"My fellow masters believe that the more specimens, the better," Gara criticized. "So they've eliminated the bugs, birds, cats, fish, and large animals from this kingdom. The Greeed they created cannot be controlled. Then attempting to use the remains of long-dead animals failed to generate enough desire to create a Greeed. Their focus should be on the Medals and the power within, not on the Greeed."

He felt sick. That explained why he couldn't find any bugs or birds in the forest—local extinction, thanks to the alchemists wiping them out for their experiments. That was why the village had shortages of fruit and honey—and meat and other foods too, he was willing to bet.

That was why the other villages and towns had been attacked—to raid their food supplies. It was likely the people there died from starvation, if not from direct attack. The knight had been there to fight back against it, but he'd probably been wounded by Ankh.

But why had he warned Eiji about the alchemists specifically, rather than about the King? If anything, the King would have been the person the rest of the people in the kingdom would be afraid of, not his alchemists. And what was their interest in him?

He wrote in the words "local extinction event" and underlined them several times. When he made it home—_if_ he made it home—he would have to warn Kougami about the consequences of creating Core Medals the way the other alchemists did.

For now, he wrote down everything Gara told them about his method. Kougami would one day create new Core Medals—Miharu's possession by Poseidon was proof of that. But as long as Eiji was alive, he was going to ease the burden on the future Rider, on Ankh's revival, and on Kougami—because no matter what they wanted, they would never want to sink to these kinds of levels to get it.

He was so intent on writing that he never noticed the way the cobra kept its eyes fixed on him, as if spying on his every move.

* * *

It was late in the day when Bell finally escorted them out of the secret passage. Gara had not been able to complete the Medals, but he'd gotten far enough and Eiji had gotten enough notes that he felt better about what was going on, if still deeply troubled by the timeline and by the consequences of their creation.

Bell stopped short just before the mirrored corridor. In the reflections, they could see people bustling about the great hall, setting up banquet tables. When it was finally clear, Bell quickly ushered them through.

Everything was decorated in gold—gold plates and bowls for presenting the food, linen on the table embroidered with gold thread, and the servants dressed in pale clothing with similar gold embroidery.

"This...this was never announced," Bell said, sounding scared and human for the first time since Solaris had met her.

"What's going on?" Eiji asked.

"A royal banquet," the King declared, walking up to them. "My people have not had the chance to properly thank you for all of the work you did protecting them and their children. I have invited them all here to celebrate."

"Everyone?" Solaris repeated, unable to hide her shock.

"It will be a tight fit, but we will manage," the King insisted. "The food is being prepared as we speak, and my knights will provide transportation for the villagers. In the meantime, baths are ready in your rooms, along with new clothes for the banquet. You both will be sitting with me this evening."

"Thank you, Your Majesty," Solaris replied with a bow, and Eiji hesitantly did the same, regretting that he'd earned the King's respect and trust.

Bell led them over toward their rooms, and as soon as they were out of earshot, Solaris warned, "I want you to remove every single servant from my apprentice's room. If he needs any help with bathing, you take care of it."

"What?" Eiji asked.

"I'll do that now," Bell agreed, speeding up to get to Eiji's room first.

Solaris looked at him seriously and whispered, "The King is up to something. I may not trust Bell, but I trust him even less. She at least can keep anyone else away from you."

He glanced at his bracelet. That was one secret Gara knew, and at least now, the King wouldn't hear of it. "Okay."

"Tomorrow, we're finding that thing," she insisted obliquely. "We can't risk staying here much longer."

He nodded, then walked to his room while Solaris watched over him. The tub was full of hot water, scented with herbs again. Bell helped him remove his clothes and got him into the water, washing him quickly and vigorously. He couldn't help but feel like the King meant for the vagabond to be washed off of him completely.

His new clothes were a pair of longer undergarments called braies, belted to his waist and tucked into gold-colored hose. A white silk tunic went underneath a pale wool gown called a cotehardie, shot through with gold thread. A leather belt with a gold buckle went around him, and with all of the white and gold, he couldn't help but feel like a prized lamb brought out for the slaughter.

As Bell brought him out, Solaris was already ready, dressed in a richly golden sleeveless surcoat over a white linen tunic, belted with a jeweled girdle. In place of a hat, a gold circlet was around her head. Overall, she looked more impressive, but...

"I don't like what you're wearing," she said, looking critically at his ominous colors.

The sense of creeping doom had not gone away, and this only justified it. Eiji nodded in agreement.

They walked out, to see the townspeople gathered around the table, the children already seated. Eiji caught sight of Gerhild, who gave him a momentary look of alarm before averting her gaze. It only made his sense of dread worse. Following along, they took their places at the head of the table and bowed as the King stood, sitting only when he did.

"Before we eat, a toast," the King declared. "To our protectors, these wonderful travelers!"

Everyone lifted their cups, with the parents instructing the children what to do. Servants had even taken the babies and brought animal horns that seemed to act as baby bottles. Eiji noticed that while his goblet was gold on the outside, the inside was glass—which didn't add up to him. Why would the cup need to be glass on the inside, but not on the outside? The drink looked like red wine, but he just felt apprehensive. And was it his imagination, or were the masked alchemists watching him?

He had no choice but to drain his cup. If it was wine, it was heavily spiced, and for some reason, it burned on its way down. Solaris gave him a look of concern, but he managed a smile, even if he didn't feel it. Down the table, he noticed some of the children complaining about their drinks, with their parents shushing them. Gerhild was watching them carefully and caught his gaze before looking away again.

A servant came by and refilled his goblet. Maybe it took a bit to get used to, but it didn't burn as much as he sipped more carefully—the taste seemed different, more mild. Still, he hoped there wouldn't be any more toasts to come.

The alchemists stopped watching him and began to eat their meal.

* * *

The feast was long—too long. It was uncomfortable for everyone there, they were constantly being watched, the babies kept crying, the children kept complaining they wanted to go home, and it didn't help Eiji in the least when he started to feel sick to his stomach.

He felt terrible. So terrible that he didn't even bother to take off as much as his shoes before climbing into bed. Solaris couldn't help but feel a little worried as he curled up tight and fell asleep immediately.

His dreams made no sense. He was eighteen again, fresh out of high school and ready to travel the world and do good, saving everyone he possibly could. His father wasn't on board with the plan and argued with him.

"What good can you do just wandering the planet?" he asked, appearing as the King. "You have no power. Power is the key to everything."

This wasn't the conversation, and Eiji looked to his mother for help, but he only saw Solaris, who insisted, "The world doesn't matter. You are what's important. We need you."

No. No, this wasn't it at all. His parents had only agreed when he convinced them that it would look good for them if their youngest son was involved in charity work.

He was at the Hikawa Shrine now, with his older half-sister. But Rei was missing, replaced by Gerhild, who warned in fluent Japanese, "You have to leave now, before it's too late."

He saw Ankh with his back turned to him. He reached out to him, calling his name. But without turning around, Ankh insisted, "Don't worry about me—you need to save yourself."

He woke up suddenly, his stomach churning and his mouth filling with saliva—he was about to throw up. He found the chamber pot by the bed and knelt over it, vomiting helplessly.

A candle lit suddenly—Solaris. She walked over to the pitcher on the wash stand and got him a cup of water. He couldn't even take it; he was still throwing up and shaking. She put a hand against his head, and it felt cold to him.

"You're burning up," she said. "How could you possibly get this sick so fast?"

"I don't know," he said, half-sobbing as he tried to keep from vomiting again. "I think...it might have been at dinner. Something about the wine didn't taste right."

She held the candle over the chamber pot. Suspended in the liquid were blobs of silver sludge.

"I'm packing your things," she warned. "We're leaving _now_."

She took his shawl and bundled it up with all of his belongings before tying it up and slinging it over her shoulder. Then she shifted into her Mutamit form and cut a window through the stone with her sword before taking Eiji under one arm and leaping out.

* * *

**Title from the first opening narration in the English dub of the 2003 _Fullmetal Alchemist_ anime. Throwaway reference to Sailor Mars in Eiji's dreams.**


	5. Chrysopeia

Their method of escape was far from subtle. The castle was built to be easily defended; thus, there were no windows in Eiji's room, and the walls were solid stone. But Solaris's sword cut through all the same, disrupting the masonry around it. The walls began to crumble and cave in.

The commotion drew Bell's attention immediately, and she rushed in to see what was the matter. But all she could see was Eiji leaning over the chamber pot and a catlike monster grabbing him and leaping out the newfound window.

"What's going on?" she asked, sounding momentarily human.

She looked around, trying to get surveillance for her master. The Mutamit was leaping down from the castle, holding a limp Eiji like a doll under one arm. Chunks of stone still fell from the wall, from the loss of structural integrity. What remained of the initial cut was smooth—smoother than any tool from their time should have been.

What made less sense was why Eiji had been taken. Why had the King taken a sudden interest in him—a strange young man with odd possessions, yes, but otherwise unremarkable in terms of intelligence and talent?

And why had he been so sick all of a sudden? Bell looked toward the chamber pot and reached for the candle Solaris had left behind, but a swift wind stirred in the room, and she immediately stood on guard.

It hadn't come from the destroyed wall; someone else was in the room, hiding in the shadows. Bell had been created for surveillance and not combat; she had little in the way of offensive capabilities. But all the same, when she heard the intruder coming toward her, she held out the candelabra to fend him off.

The intruder was, likewise, not a fighter by nature. Bell could tell when she saw the mask and blue-green robes illuminating in the candlelight—Master Willeson, the alchemist. He backed away, and she tried to strike again with the heavy candlestick. He pulled back once more, his robes missing the flames, and pulled a knife from his belt. Again, she swung the candlestick, trying to knock the knife away from his hand, but he continued to back out of her range. She swung once more, the flames completely out, and this time hit his hand. He shouted in pain, and she turned, ready to run to her master's lab and help him against the betrayal.

But as she turned, she ran straight into a sword, which caught her right in the middle. It didn't hurt; she wasn't alive, so it couldn't. But she was shocked, and her last transmission to Gara was of the King's stern expression as he pulled his sword from her and she exploded into pink smoke and Cell Medals.

"Willeson," the King said. "I thought I told you to take care of this."

"Forgive me, Your Majesty," the alchemist replied, bowing.

The King was not interested in his show of apology. Instead, he ordered, "Collect the sample," and walked to the hole in the wall.

Willeson picked up the chamber pot and examined it in the dim moonlight. There was a dull, greasy reflection from the sludge inside—an ugly child born of the ancient moon goddess, Diana. But everything precious needed to be refined, and he hurried with the chamber pot to the lab.

The King, meanwhile, ran his hand over the smooth stone as he watched for any sign of Eiji or Solaris. But there was nothing; the shadows had them in their protection now. Still, it didn't matter. One way or another, he would have what he desired; and by morning, the whole village would know it.

In his own lab, Gara watched the destruction of his homunculus. Just as Bell had feared—the King did have more of an interest in the travelers than he'd been willing to let on.

He'd always known that the rivalry between him and his fellow alchemists would reach the tipping point, and now was that time. They had betrayed him to their own ambitions—no, not theirs; the _King's_, and that was far more unforgivable. No longer was it the pursuit of knowledge and the desire to create the ultimate power. It was to give the King the power _he_ wanted, a power he could never appreciate because he always, _always_ would want more.

His Medals weren't ready yet. There could be no running in a delicate situation such as this. But he _could_ seal them—prevent the Greeed or the King from ever sensing them, locking their powers within so they could be hidden. And if such a thing could be done with a Core Medal, then who was to say it couldn't be done with a human?

If they thought they would be rid of him by killing him, they would be in for a surprise, as he bound himself to a cache of Cell Medals and prepared the seals.

* * *

The village church was in chaos, once again filled with anxious parents and their children, but this time, all of the children were violently ill. Doctors rushed from child to child, trying to administer care, the baptismal font was being used to help cool the children down, and Gerhild put herself to work steeping chamomile, angelica, and willow for medicine.

The door opened again, and she walked over, dreading another sick child. Instead, Solaris stood, holding up Eiji, who was pale and lethargic.

"We noticed everyone else coming here," Solaris explained.

"What happened to him?" Gerhild asked in shock.

"Probably the same thing as everyone else," she replied.

"Bring him inside," Gerhild insisted.

Eiji didn't understand a word anyone said as they half-carried him through the church, but he noticed the looks of surprise on the parents' faces and the fear on the children's. He knew what they were thinking—even the King's new pet hadn't been spared.

They unbuckled his belt and removed the cotehardie before setting him down on the floor, still shivering. A doctor—probably a barber—came by with a knife for bloodletting, but Solaris scared him off. Gerhild got a cup of the tisane she'd made and coaxed him to drink it carefully, for all he tried to vomit again. Solaris unbundled his belongings and soaked his red tunic in the baptismal font before wiping his head and neck, all while he tensed up at the contact. He felt like he was freezing, and his body ached at every slight touch.

When he'd finally finished the tea and kept it down, they laid him on his side to sleep. Solaris looked around at the similar scenes playing out with the children, many of whom were vomiting the same silver sludge Eiji had.

"Hino thinks that the wine he had was poisoned," she said. "Just looks like him and the kids, though."

"I never should have tried trusting the King," Gerhild replied.

Solaris looked over at Eiji, who'd finally given into exhaustion and closed his eyes. "You can explain in the morning, when he wakes up. In the meantime, we need to keep every single one of these patients hydrated—we need plenty of water, and stop those idiots with the knives before they make things worse."

"All right," Gerhild agreed, running to work.

Solaris took one last glance at the sleeping Eiji and murmured in Japanese, "It looks like you got your way, after all. I'm stuck protecting everyone else now too."

* * *

In the depths of the forest, far from the village, the Greeed hid out, feeding on the few Cell Medals they'd managed to harvest recently, and then, mostly from Gamel's powers. It was a miserable existence, particularly with OOO constantly fighting them.

"Still don't understand how you missed," Uva groused at Ankh, absorbing a few Medals.

The comment burned at Ankh, who was only staying with them to protect his secret alliance with the King. He hadn't gotten a good look at the human he'd tried to make a Yummy from, but he'd seen the way his head moved back—that Medal had hit him, without entering. He snapped back, "I didn't miss! The slot never opened on that human."

"So you say," Kazari challenged. "You couldn't even land an attack on him because of OOO showing up. I think you're just losing your edge."

Ankh glared back at him. But suddenly, a terrible feeling washed over them, all at once. It was like the feeling they got when a Yummy had been born and was beginning to produce Medals, but it was...wrong, somehow.

"Ankh," Kazari asked, giving him a suspicious look. "You didn't create a Yummy, did you?"

Despite everything, Ankh was just as bewildered as them. "No. My last attempt 'missed,' as you keep saying."

"It doesn't feel right," Gamel whimpered, turning to Mezool for comfort. She patted his head, but he didn't feel any better.

"It's..." Uva stopped, struggling to find words. "_Greasy._"

"That sounds awfully human," Mezool teased. "But it may be right. Like Medals that are failing to form."

They were silent for a moment. Cell Medals formed their bodies, and they fed off the energy. Core Medals contained their consciousness and powers. A half-formed Medal of either type was a disgusting thought.

"Hey," Kazari called out. "Those alchemists at the castle know how to create Medals too. Maybe we should ask them?"

It was a challenge, and Ankh knew it. Still, he said, "Then we should go investigate, right?"

"That sensation isn't coming from the castle," Mezool pointed out, getting up to stand in the middle of them. Gamel followed at her heels. "It's coming from the village. The humans there are doing it."

This was the test. Kazari clearly didn't trust him, and it wouldn't be hard for him to get the others to agree. If Ankh was going to convince them he was still on their side, he had to do so now.

"Good," he answered. "Then along the way, we can take care of the village. I'm sure we'll have better luck with Yummies then."

"Yay!" Gamel cheered. "More Yummies!"

Ignoring him, Ankh continued, "Desires should be running wild in the village right now, with our attacks. We'd have enough for an army."

The suggestion excited Uva, who came up, realizing, "With an army of Yummies, we'd have no problem taking on OOO!"

"The three of you are the best suited for that," Mezool said. "You'll both be able to produce more Yummies with more Medals in a short amount of time than either Gamel or I can."

"Then we'll take the lead," Ankh agreed. Then, with a pointed look at Kazari, he added, "Unless you think I've lost my edge."

"Not at all," Kazari answered facetiously. "I'll follow you the whole way."

As with everything Kazari said, Ankh read the threat within. But all he answered was "Good," before they set off toward the village.

* * *

Eiji was back in Kougami's OOO room, flanked by Goto and Hina, just as he'd been three years ago when Kougami explained his plans to use Eiji as a vessel for the Medals. Kougami was holding the same chalice Eiji had drunk from at the banquet, filled with Core Medals this time.

He dumped them out, and suddenly he was the King. In place of Hina and Goto were Gerhild and Solaris, and Eiji was a stripped-down OOO, his armor basic black.

"They are trying to empty you," the King said. "And fill you up again with their own desires."

Eiji glanced at Solaris and Gerhild, who each held a chalice of the silver sludge he'd been vomiting. Unwilling to accept the King's words, he argued, "You're doing the same thing!"

The King was Kougami again, and he asked, "Hino Eiji, what is your desire?"

"I have my desire!" he cried. "I want to help other people. I want to use my power, the power of the Core Medals, to create peace! I want to save Ankh, I want..."

He stopped. The floor had turned into the sludge, and it was creeping up him, the same way the cobra's tail had.

"Control your desire!" Ankh shouted, flying overhead. "Before you lose control of yourself!"

"I'm trying!" Eiji insisted, sinking in the sludge. It was taking shape over his body, solidifying until his left arm had become a Greeed arm again. "Not again. Please. This isn't what I want!"

Now, Maki entered, standing against the wall. As always, he didn't look at Eiji directly, instead looking at his doll, which was dressed in the same white-and-gold clothes Eiji had worn at the banquet.

"Deny it, and you become a Greeed," he said. "Give into it, and lose control. Which way will you end?"

"I'm not..." Eiji tried to say, crying. "I don't want..."

There were tears in his eyes, for real. Slowly, he opened them, trying to focus on everything in front of him. He was lying on the floor somewhere, and there were people all around him—when had he...right. Solaris had taken him to the church when he'd gotten sick.

He was sweating now and felt hot. He wasn't sure if he'd broken his fever or not, but there was a cool, wet cloth over his face—his red tunic. At this rate, he was going to run out of clothes.

He felt hopelessly weak, but he managed to sit up anyway. Nearby were children and babies whose conditions also seemed to have improved—those who were awake were drinking either from bowls or from the horn-like bottles he'd seen back at the banquet.

Hot though he was, he reached for his pants and pulled them on over his braies and hose, feeling more comfortable stuffing his possessions back into his pockets. Before putting his phone away, he checked the charge and spent what little it had left taking a few pictures to document the church and the people. He didn't know how this would help—maybe it could at least act as a warning.

"Looks like you're through the worst of it," Solaris said, walking over with a bowl.

He tried to reach for it, but his right shoulder ached worse than ever, and he didn't think he'd have enough strength in his left arm to hold it steadily. So she reached down and handed it directly to him.

"Guess so," he admitted. "I feel weak, though." He eyed the contents of the bowl suspiciously.

"It's broth," she insisted. "Mixed with the same tea that stabilized your fever."

Nodding hesitantly, he took a sip. At least this tasted fine, albeit a little bitter from the herbs. Once he was finished, she handed him a cup of water.

"You need to keep hydrated," she warned. "Between your fever and vomiting, you've lost a lot of water."

"I know," he said, putting a hand against his stomach. He still felt nauseous, but not like he was immediately going to throw up. "But I don't get why all these kids were poisoned too—doesn't the King want me, for whatever he's got planned?"

Solaris looked over to Gerhild, who'd noticed he was finally awake. Though she wouldn't look him in the eye, she walked over and sat down by him.

"Your friend has a lot to explain," Solaris said. "I'll translate."

Eiji looked at Gerhild patiently as she took a breath and began her story.

"I wasn't the only lover the King had," she said. "There were many others, picked from the village, from the maids... One of them was my friend, Adelheid." As Solaris translated, Eiji nodded, and she continued. "I was jealous when she became pregnant, and I didn't. So I didn't do anything about some of the things I thought were suspicious at the time."

"Suspicious?" Eiji repeated, and Solaris nodded to show the translation was correct. "Like what?"

Solaris translated the question, and Gerhild answered, "Things like how no midwife was ever summoned to the castle, or how three of the alchemists took over her care. They gave her special tonics to drink and said they would keep her strong and help the baby, but she only seemed to get weaker and sicker. She even started having nightmares as her fevers continued, and I couldn't understand anything she was saying. She must have picked up your language from the King, and after a while, it was all she could speak. I tried to learn so I could communicate with her, but she only got worse and eventually stopped understanding anything at all. She couldn't keep any food down either, and her vomit was silver—just like yours and the children's. When she finally did give birth, I knew she'd never survive."

"That's why the King said you were trying to kidnap the baby," he realized.

She nodded. "I thought if I could get it out of there, someone in the village could help. But the King caught me in the act, and I had to rely on my jealousy to protect myself so he would show mercy. Adelheid and her baby died a few days later."

This made more sense than the story the King had told him, but it still didn't answer one thing. "What does this have to do with all of these children, though?"

"Before I left, I convinced the women in the castle to hide their pregnancies, so the alchemists couldn't poison them like they did Adelheid. Then they could escape to the village and have their babies safely, and we could hide them among the villagers' children. But at first, they didn't believe me, so we only had a few children. As years went on and things got worse, they started coming here more and more. But the King became suspicious, and the villagers had to have more children in order to hide his children among them. They've all been adopted into the village, and they have no idea where they originally came from."

Everything was beginning to fall into place. The strange way the King treated the children, the way Gerhild was protective of them, the Yummy sent by Ankh to target her.

Now, it was time for Solaris to ask a question, and she asked Eiji, "You're not descended from the King, right?"

He carefully shook his head. "Both sides of my family can track their history back centuries in Japan. Besides, if I was? Kougami would have made a big deal of it." When she nodded, he looked at Gerhild. "Why did you ask the King to save the children, if you knew he might find out?"

Tears were running down her face now, and she confessed, "Some part of me didn't want to believe that he had anything to do with this, that this was all on the alchemists. I guess part of me still loved him. But he's nothing like the man he used to be. He's always wanted everything, but the closer he comes to getting it, the less satisfied he is."

The dream came back to Eiji, along with Kougami's past warning. The King had lost control because his desire overwhelmed him, making it impossible to control the power of the Medals. His eyes strayed to the cross on the altar.

"The King wants to become a god," he said. "That kind of desire, without bounds, overwhelms you easily. The Medals make it worse. It's possible that he had good intentions at first, but he's losing control of his desire. Sooner or later, he's going to lose control completely."

Solaris stopped translating. Eiji's gaze moved from the cross to the children lying on the floor, never quite focusing, but always fixating. She quickly grabbed the tunic and tied it around his eyes.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I saw this before with Bell," she explained. "One of the alchemists is spying on us through you!"

"What?" Once again, cold fear clawed at him. It explained why Gara hadn't seemed interested in him; there wasn't any point in paying close attention to him when he had Bell for that. But how many times had the others done the same?

"It's just your eyes," she warned. "If they could control the rest of your body, they would have done so by now. Whatever you do, don't take off that blindfold."

He nodded, trying to stop himself from shaking. What did they want? First poisoning him, now using him as a spy—to what gain?

No birds, no cats, no insects, no fish, no large animals—the alchemists had killed them in order to create the Core Medals. Now, fewer humans. He reached for Solaris's arm and said, "The knight's warning—the whole thing. What did he say?"

"He said to beware the alchemists," she explained. "That the Greeed may have killed them, but the alchemists collected their bodies once the Greeed were gone. That this happened in every town in the kingdom, and the local nobles were doing everything they could to put a stop to it."

"No," he murmured, pulling away. "Solaris, they're..."

"Creating new Core Medals," she agreed. "Human Core Medals."

He heard an explosion in the distance and turned toward the sound. He could hear people standing up, animals in the village bleating, and anyone outside the church screaming in fear.

"It's the Greeed," Solaris said. Switching to German, she warned, "Barricade the doors!"

Eiji tried to get up, but someone kept pushing him back down. "Let me help!"

"You're helpless in this condition," Solaris warned. "Stay down."

It was the worst thing he could possibly have been told, and he sat there, shaking. The last time he'd been helpless like this, a little girl he'd cared about died. Every time after, he did everything he could to try to prevent another tragedy, no matter how much he hurt himself in the process.

He could hear everything that was going on, and somehow, that was worse than seeing it. The doors to the church were shaking as everyone tried to brace them closed against waves of newly created Yummies tried to make their way through. The children were crying, some of them screaming as wood splintered and finally broke. He felt sicker the closer they came, and he bet the kids did too—whatever was happening to them, whatever was inside them, was reacting to the presence of the Yummies. It wasn't all that different from the feeling he had when he'd been transforming into a Greeed.

"Not again," he whispered.

He started to reach for his blindfold, but someone pulled his hand away and started pulling him away from the area. The sickness increased as he realized the Yummies were growing, getting stronger the more they attacked. The kettle the soup had been cooked in was clanging against the wall, relics of the church were being torn and consumed, and the bleating animals finally stopped calling out altogether. Medals were flung everywhere, and people screamed as Yummies burst out of them or overtook them. It was war.

He heard Gerhild's voice cry out as someone hit them, tearing her away from his side. A rough hand picked him up, and he heard Kazari's voice.

"Hey, Ankh," he called. "Is this the human you missed before?"

It seemed to translate itself in Eiji's mind—like no matter what language they spoke, in the end, they were the same, so of course they would understand each other. Not for the first time in his life, he blinked away tears as they were absorbed into his blindfold.

"Might be," Ankh answered, annoyed but otherwise barely concerned.

Eiji felt a Medal slot beginning to form on his forehead. Desperately, he tried to control his desire again so he could close it, but he couldn't seem to calm himself down enough to do so. If they succeeded in creating a Yummy from him, he knew it would be stronger than anything the Greeed had unleashed before. Kazari threw him across the room, and he stumbled to keep his footing.

"Let me show you how it's done," Kazari insisted.

He heard the Medal come for him, but something shoved him to the floor, hard. He let out a pained cry as he fell, unable to catch himself. He heard Solaris shout, and he risked removing his blindfold at last. She'd shoved him out of the way to prevent Kazari from making a Greeed out of him. Now, her body was being covered with bandages.

She turned around and grabbed him, yanking him up violently. The bandages were forming quickly; she'd wanted to experiment on him, someone was experimenting on him now, and her desire was rapidly being fulfilled. Claws formed on her hands, and she dug them into his skin. As he screamed in pain, he remembered her words from two days ago: "Vivisection comes after the stress tests. Before that are the blood tests." There was his blood.

She pulled her claws out and threw him to the floor again. He started to curl up in pain as she struck him again. He wasn't going to be able to take much more, with the condition his body was in already.

Gerhild crawled over and tried to pull him away, but Solaris grabbed her by the arm and yanked her up as Eiji screamed, "No!"

She formed her sword and held it against Gerhild. He froze, watching in horror. This was it, just the psychological response she kept looking for—what made him risk everything to save other people.

"It..." he started, gasping it out. "It's because..."

Solaris looked at him intently, pressing the blades of her sword against Gerhild and drawing blood. Eiji forced himself to stand.

"It's because I never want that to happen again!" he shouted. "Because I have the power to help other people and create peace! I want to save _everyone! _Not because I'm a vessel for other people's desires, not because I'm denying my own, but because _this is what I want!_ I won't settle for anything less!"

Solaris dropped Gerhild and swung at Eiji with the sword, her body swiftly being overtaken by the form of a black jaguar Yummy. Eiji ducked and reached in just as the Cell Medals formed around her, pulling with both arms, no matter how much pain he was in.

"I'm going to save you too!" he insisted. "No matter what happens after, that's what I've decided!"

Solaris grabbed his hands, and he pulled with all the strength he didn't have. As he started to fall to the floor, she reached out and pulled her sword out of the Yummy's hands, striking it with enough force to stun it and give her the chance to break free. She landed on her feet as Eiji collapsed, slashing back at the Yummy to defend him, causing it to explode.

"You really are too reckless, you know that?" she said.

He tried to smile, but pain suddenly racked his body—not just from the injuries, but from the poison inside him and whatever it was doing to him. It started sharp, but it intensified quickly; "burning" wasn't even strong enough a word to describe it. It was stabbing, burning, shocking, pulling, breaking, clawing—like every pain he'd experienced in his life, magnified tenfold, then a hundredfold, and all at once. He closed his eyes and began to scream. The children were screaming too, but he was louder, curled up helplessly into a ball. Gerhild tried to shake him back to awareness, but he only opened his eyes to reveal tears and...

And pale gold irises.

In the lab in the castle, Willeson took a sample of Eiji's vomit and added it to the Diana's Tree they'd created days ago. Against all odds, the crystallized silver began to re-form, transmuting into a different color and structure.

"I don't believe this," he breathed. "It's turning gold."

He backed away from the table in shock. This mysterious time-traveler had managed what no other person had. He was a living philosopher's stone—the power to turn base metals into gold, transmute the common into the noble, the vulgar into the divine. This was the secret to surpassing God, and even the potential for immortality.

"Our great work," he realized. "It's finally done."

And all they needed now was Eiji himself.

* * *

**"Chrysopeia" is the transmutation of matter into gold.**


	6. Ouroboros

Eiji took a shaking breath, still curled up in pain, his eyes still an unnatural, light gold, the color of white wine. The expression on his face was pleading—pleading with Gerhild to do something to stop the pain. She watched him helplessly; she didn't know what she could do. All around them, the children were in similar straits, but their eyes had turned either copper or silver. No one else's had turned gold, and no one was as bad off as he was.

"Too loud," Gamel moaned, clutching his head at the sound of Eiji's screams. It was like the sound was reverberating within his Medals. He charged, smacking away a man so hard that Eiji could hear his bones break. They didn't stand a chance, unless...

He'd done it before, with the purple Medals. He didn't know exactly what was going on with his body this time, but if he felt the way he'd felt then, then maybe he could tap into whatever kind of power was reacting inside him.

He closed his eyes and focused on his desire. He forced himself back into that moment in Africa, as the rockets came down. He was exhausted, weak, and everything hurt, but he made himself leap over the rubble and run to her side.

In his mind, he reached out for Ankh's hand and took it. Held the Medal together, found the power to heal instead of destroy.

Three Medals were tossed to him—none he recognized. He slid them into the Driver and scanned as he ran to the girl, deflecting the missiles with his transformation. He put his arms around her and held her tight—held _everyone_ he loved tight.

In the church, a wave of golden energy burst off of him and knocked Gamel off his feet, sending him flying into a Yummy, which exploded into Cell Medals.

For a moment, no one knew what happened. An insignificant human had just exploded with desire powerful enough to temporarily stun a Greeed—such a thing was laughable, if not impossible. But soon, blasts from outside rocked the church, and the Greeed and Yummies turned in that direction.

"The King is here," Mezool realized.

"No more wasting time with these pests," Uva decided. "Let's go!"

As they started to make their way out, Gamel clambered to get back up, crying, "Wait for me!"

The gold faded from Eiji's eyes as he tried to catch his breath. He was losing his focus on the battle—he saw himself as OOO, checking on the girl he'd saved. She looked up at him in surprise before smiling—a smile that lit up like the sun. Nearby, Hina and Shingo were also smiling, Goto congratulated him, and Date gave him a clap on the back that despite his transformation, still somehow managed to shake his whole body. Ankh was there too, trying not to look as impressed as he really was, and trying to sneak ice pops from Chiyoko, who was cheering him on.

Eiji closed his eyes and went completely limp.

Gerhild shook him, but he didn't respond. She turned him over and placed an ear close to his face, and she could hear faint breathing. Solaris rushed over and grabbed his wrist.

"Weak pulse—blood pressure's probably low too," she murmured. "That energy took a lot out of him." She looked up and watched the children, who were crying but otherwise unchanged. "Nothing from them."

"They were poisoned the same," Gerhild said. "Why is this only happening to him?"

Because he was OOO. Because he had been a Greeed once before—Solaris was putting the pieces together just as he had. But this didn't seem to be a simple Greeedification, if that sort of thing could even be called "simple." Intel said that he'd never had any adverse medical side-effects from the purple Medals—he was abnormally normal, given the circumstances. This? This was killing him.

The sounds of chaos outside reminded her that the battle wasn't over yet. Looking at the parents, she barked, "Don't let anyone else in! If the King is here, he'll be after everyone." With a glance down at Eiji, she added, "For all our sakes, don't tell anyone what he did, understand?"

Gerhild took Eiji's shawl and put it over him like a blanket. With a look of understanding between them, Solaris left her to guard him while she joined the battle.

If she'd known Eiji's assessment of what he'd heard from outside, Solaris would agree that it was war. The Yummy army charged at OOO, who cut them down mercilessly with the sword before engaging the Greeed. Knights guarded two alchemists, who tossed over flasks of volatile chemicals, which exploded on the Yummies, buying time for the knights to charge in. Cell Medals flew everywhere—from Yummies and homunculus knights alike.

"So that's what happened to the knight Hino tried to save," she mused, ripping her sword out of an ostrich Yummy. An explosion downed a dragonfly, and she leapt over it to cut down a snow leopard.

The Greeed circled around the King, trying to attack him all at once. His legs became more grasshopper-like as he leapt over their attacks, scanning his belt to activate his kick. With a precise strike, he hit Ankh hard enough to blast him away without actually harming him. Upon landing, he scanned the sword, knocking back Mezool. An enraged Gamel tried to counterattack, but he lured him in the direction of Uva's electrical attack, and the charge and electricity took the both of them down. All that was left was Kazari, and he judged his allies' defeats before running off.

"You coward!" Uva roared as he shoved Gamel off of him, running after Kazari. "Get back here!"

Mezool, likewise, wasn't happy. She sprayed a blast of water at Kazari, but he leapt onto a roof and out of the way.

"Gamel, let's go," she said, her voice icy.

"O-okay," he replied, following after her.

Now, Ankh rose, blasting at the King so it would look like he was covering everyone's escape. The King released the shield from his chest and deflected the fireball at a roof before locking his sword against Ankh's arm. A silent signal between them, and Ankh let out a fiery blast that consumed half the Yummies around them, but the King appeared to strike him down. A pile of Cell Medals fell to the ground, his Cores somewhere in the mix.

The escaping Greeed weren't sure what to think.

It would have been easy to scoop up Ankh's Medals then and there, but the King had other priorities. With another scan of the sword, he unleashed a wave of energy that took out more of the Yummies. Between his attacks, the knights, and the alchemists, the rest soon fell.

This meant they could now turn their attention to their true purpose—retrieving the children and Eiji. Wang bowed to the King and announced, "I've lost my connection with him, but the last I saw, he and the children were located in the church."

"Good," the King answered, turning that direction. But standing before the broken doors was a bloodied, soot-stained Solaris, who held her sword at the ready.

"Stand aside," he warned.

"Right," she deadpanned.

He tossed over Eiji's passport. She caught it one-handed and glanced at it only quickly before turning her attention back to him, remaining on the defense.

"We know who you are and where you're from," he said. "Or should I say, 'when' you're from. We know he is the OOO of the future."

"Then you should know this sword was specially designed to cut through his armor," she retorted.

"Hino Eiji is of great importance to us," Wang insisted. "As are all the children. We can find ways of returning you to your time. You do not need him."

"Wrong," she argued. "You're not the only one with plans for him."

"Then what about the children?" Khazim reasoned. "There is no reason for you to defend them. They've all been long dead by the time you come from. What happens to them here is of little consequence."

"Not going to happen," she insisted, her face partially transforming as a threat.

"Then you leave me no choice," the King declared, raising his sword.

She met it with her own, transforming in an instant. When she tried to get her knife in beneath his defenses as she had with Eiji, he removed his shield to block. With a mighty throw, he tossed her back, right through the doorway, and everyone inside screamed as they saw the Mutamit battling the King. She made a swing for his head, but he ducked out of the way and made a thrusting motion at her middle. She was forced to abandon her attack to block, and he smashed the shield against her face, dropping her to the floor.

He wasn't a better fighter than Eiji, by any means, but he was stronger. The tenth Medals he used held the desire that kept the lingering void that created the Greeed at bay, and his own uncontrollable desire let him tap into the power deeper than he should have allowed himself. Solaris found it impossible to keep up with him, to block every attack and to find an opening. She was forced back into human form, barely holding her own sword off of her body, feeling the jagged blades on the edges just start to press into her skin.

"Give them up," the King urged.

The knights had pushed back the adults while the alchemists went from child to child, inspecting their eyes. Those with copper eyes were thrown over with their parents. The younger ones, all with silver eyes, were snatched by other knights.

They came to Eiji, finally. Khazim held his eyes open and reported, "Brown."

The King glanced toward him in surprise, and Solaris smirked. "He's no use to you, then, is he?"

He threw her off and let a knight grab her, then walked over to Eiji. Tossing aside Khazim, he raised his sword over him, ready to plunge it through him.

"Wait!" Gerhild cried. "Don't!"

The King looked over to her, keeping his sword level at Eiji's heart. The knights wouldn't let her through, but she pleaded, "I surrender. Just...don't hurt him. He's innocent in all this—everyone is. Just take me."

Both the parents clinging to their children and those who watched their crying children held by armored homunculi looked to her. But the King only replied, "This goes far beyond your surrender, Gerhild. It's long past that." To the alchemists, he instructed, "Burn everything."

They took their flasks of chemicals and threw them, setting off small explosions that caused the wood of the building to catch fire. They started to walk away, leaving them to burn, but the parents screamed and pleaded. Take their children. Save them. Do anything, please.

He stopped at the door. "As you wish."

The knights took the silver-eyed children first, who screamed for their parents. The copper-eyed children were ripped directly from their parents' arms, sobbing and screaming all the while. The King himself returned for Eiji, still asleep as everything burned around him, and scooped him up in his arms.

The church blazed behind them.

* * *

The soldiers had come for Eiji without warning. He understood enough Arabic to know that they were targeting him specifically. He knew what happened when they did that; he knew nobody came back. He was hungry, weak, and devastated by grief, but he still tried to fight back as best as he could.

They threw him to the ground, beat his face into the dirt as they bound his wrists behind him. He was bleeding when they picked him up and dragged him to their truck.

Someone said they needed to be careful with him. Another said that they were paid to deliver him alive, not uninjured.

Someone else said to blindfold him before he could identify them.

He was crying when they covered his eyes. No matter what they said, he didn't believe that they weren't going to drive him out into the middle of the desert and execute him, just like they'd done to too many others. The blindfold was constantly damp with tears, despite the dry air.

The truck finally stopped. Someone got out. He could hear talking, arguing. When his door opened and someone took him out, he cried even harder, convinced they were going to kill him.

Someone else took him, untied his hands. He tried to fight when he realized he was being brought somewhere else.

A voice told him, in English, "You're safe now."

They removed his blindfold, carefully got him in an armored car.

"We're taking you to a hospital."

The soldiers were gone. The negotiators took over.

He still didn't feel any safer, but he was able to stop crying, for a little while anyway. He wasn't going to die.

But he felt like he already had.

There was someone else crying now—a lot of someones, in fact. Young voices—children. He flinched at the sound; too many talking all at once, some trying to soothe those who were crying, very young babies crying. Then he started to understand what they were saying.

"I miss Mama."

"I wanna go home."

"What's gonna happen to us?"

He _shouldn't_ have understood them. His eyes snapped open, and he tried to sit up, but more pain wracked his body, and he had to curl up again.

"Is he okay?"

He took a few deep breaths the way he did when trying to regain control over his emotions. Checked his right wrist—the bracelet was still there. His eyes felt sticky—he'd been crying. He wiped them and felt his head was still warm.

A small hand reached for him, trying to shake him. Then he saw the child's face—the same older boy he'd met the first day, who'd helped him rescue all the babies. His eyes had turned copper.

"I'm okay," Eiji said weakly, his voice hoarse from screaming.

The boy jumped back in surprise, and other children gasped. He took another careful breath and sat up, managing to lean himself against a wall. He was with the children in a large cell somewhere. He could make out a door at the far end and a barred window along one of the walls, letting in the last rays of light from sunset.

"His eyes are still normal," a small girl said.

Again, perfectly understandable. Curious, he asked, "Can you understand me?"

The children looked at each other nervously, and finally, some of them began to nod. He winced and rested his head against the wall. "Just like with the Greeed."

"You are becoming like one another," said a new voice. "It's only natural that you would understand each other's languages."

The language, thankfully, sounded like English—if it pronounced every letter written and if all the vowels were closer to what he was used to in Japanese. He looked over to see a masked man in a blue-green robe, flanked by two knights, holding a tray of food.

"You're one of the alchemists," he said in modern English.

Despite the eight-hundred year difference between the languages, the alchemist seemed to understand him well enough. "Thomas Willeson, of England. You are Eiji Hino, of Japan."

He paused and tried to think. Finally, he answered, "I never told anyone my name."

"We already know who you are," Willeson insisted. "His Majesty thought you would be the best specimen for this project, being the future OOO. I did not believe, but now that I have seen what you are capable of myself..."

"What are you talking about?" Eiji asked.

Willeson set the tray down. "Eat. You've lost a lot of strength."

He gave the alchemist a look of pure cynicism. "You just poisoned us. You really think we're going to be willing to eat anything you give us?"

"That will come after," Willeson promised. "You will not survive another dose of the elixir as you are."

"Not much of an incentive," he deadpanned. "Eat, then get poisoned again?"

"I've refined the elixir, so that it will not leave you as sick as it did," he said. "You should find it easier to keep down."

Eiji reached into a bowl of porridge and took a taste. "Honey."

"From the latest raid," Willeson answered.

Raid. Eiji noticed the word immediately. He wasn't even trying to pretend it was a food store. Not that he or Solaris had believed them anyway.

Willeson insisted, "You'll need it."

The boy closest to him looked over at the food. He passed it over, nodding. "It's safe."

They took the bowls and started digging in. Eiji closed his eyes.

"Be sure you eat too," Willeson advised. "You'll need your strength."

The alchemist and the knights walked out, bolting the door behind them. Weakly and reluctantly, Eiji scooped up a handful of the mush and started to eat.

* * *

The village was burning when the pile of Cell Medals began to stir and finally re-took shape. Among the ashes, Ankh rose again, taking a moment to regain his bearings. The King had kept his word; he hadn't taken any Medals as long as Ankh was loyal to him. Good. Humans were stupid like that, but it helped to have an idiot on your side once in a while.

He consumed some of the Medals littered around, to stabilize himself and rebuild his strength. There were a few human bodies among the Medals—people who'd been caught in the crossfire and Yummy parents who hadn't been rescued from Kazari's Yummies before they'd been destroyed. Several buildings had completely collapsed, their remains still smoldering. Everything else was on fire.

Ankh was neither horrified nor amazed by it. He'd have to be human to appreciate it in any way. He just knew he had to get to the castle before the other Greeed did. This plan had been a long time coming, and he wasn't about to jeopardize it now.

The Greeed would think he'd been destroyed, loyal to them. Their guards would be lowered when they faced the King, and he would be able to take their Medals. And once the King had their Medals and became the god he wanted to be, he'd be able to give Ankh anything and everything.

Something beyond mere satisfaction of desires. He should have been too cynical to believe in it, but OOO had a way of making you do that. Wanting more and more, things you never knew you wanted. He didn't know what it was he wanted, but if he could get it, then that was good enough for him.

He took to flight. There was work to be done.

* * *

No matter what else had happened, work still had to be done. Gara looked over his beaker and saw his labor finally rewarded: a set of Medals sinking to the bottom of the solution—cobra, turtle, crocodile. All of the power of reptiles held within, not rationed out to a Yummy.

He set the Medals in a silver box and hid them just as the door burst open to reveal the King, Khazim, Willeson, and Wang.

"So it has come to this," he noticed. "All of you, come to betray me."

"Where are the Medals you've been working on?" the King demanded.

"Sealed," Gara replied. "Their power is too great to give you."

The King raised his sword to Gara's chin. "Then tell me how to break the seal!"

Beneath the mask, there was a smug look of pride on his face. "If you kill me, you'll never learn."

That was the breaking point. He'd been questioned, second-guessed, and outright defied too many times now. The King pulled the sword back and thrust it into Gara, but instead of blood, Cell Medals exploded from his body. Enraged, the King pulled his sword free and cut him down, but all that remained were a mountain of Medals and a mask.

"Seal his Medals!" he ordered Khazim. "The last thing we need is for him to reconstitute like the Greeed."

Though somewhat shaken, Khazim began to create the seal that would last eight-hundred years until the Kougami Foundation unearthed it. Turning to Wang next, he said, "Re-forge the connection with OOO."

Wang took a beaker of chemicals and heated it over a flame. Smoke poured out, and he breathed it in. It wasn't as efficient as Gara's method of scrying though the Bells, but it gave him slightly more control over the situation. He opened Eiji's eyes and glanced around. He was barely eating, letting the children take most of the food. The oldest children, all of them copper-eyed, were recovering their strength the best and helping feed the babies horns of sweetened milk. The younger children, both silver- and copper-eyed alike, were playing and talking as they ate.

Wang broke the connection and reported, "He is awake, though he is not doing as well as the children. It seems that the elixir is affecting him far more than anyone is letting on. Surprising, considering they all vomited so much of it."

The King nodded, then looked at Willeson. "You're certain that the experiment proceeded to the gold stage?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," Willeson replied, bowing. "There is no mistaking it."

"Your Majesty," Khazim interrupted with a bow. Behind him was a pit, leading underground. This was Gara's tomb, the Medals sealed and buried. "It is done."

"Good," the King said. "I need the three of you to prepare everything. One way or another, I will have my Medals."

"As you command," Wang agreed with a bow.

"Leave me the elixir," the King insisted.

Now, the alchemists hesitated. Finally, Willeson warned, "Your Majesty, Eiji Hino is too weak to survive another dose."

"If he is OOO, then he is stronger than you believe," the King snapped. "You have defied me one too many times, Willeson. If you do not wish to end up like Gara, then give me the elixir."

No one breathed for a moment, but finally, Willeson handed it over.

"There is mint to prevent him from vomiting," he admitted, "and honey to make it more palatable. Wine, from your private stores, to make it easier to swallow."

"The best possible for a king," he replied. "Go."

Bowing uncertainly, the alchemists left. The King left Gara's tower and made his way to the cell, where Eiji had recovered just enough to teach one of the younger children rock-paper-scissors. When he won, he tapped the child lightly on the forehead, causing her to yell at him and cross her arms.

"It's just a game," he said, laughing lightly.

The door to the cell started to open. Everyone stopped, and Eiji forced himself to his feet, standing between the children and whatever was coming in. His heart almost stopped when he saw the King.

"OOO."

Eiji didn't respond, spreading his arms out more so the children could hide behind him. Already, they were beginning to cry again.

"Don't let him take us," someone whimpered.

The plea gave him the strength to glare back defiantly as the King held out a ruby glass goblet.

"No," he argued.

"You don't even know what's happening to you," the King pointed out.

"I know enough," he said. "I know we're becoming like the Greeed. I know you're using us, somehow, to create new Core Medals. I know you want to be a god. I just don't know how these are connected, or why you want me or the village children instead of just your own. And if it's just so you had enough samples, then why go through the trouble of finding your children among the rest?"

"This was a test," the King said. "The villagers cannot ascend beyond common metals, such as copper. My children can create silver. But you—you can transmute matter into gold. Difficult to corrode, does not react to most substances; one might say it is the god of metals."

"I'm not letting you do this to them," Eiji insisted.

"Are you trying to be these children's father?" he asked.

Thoughts of his own father came unbidden to Eiji's mind—the way he'd ignored his wishes, exploited his tragedy, kept him from the care he needed. He never wanted to be like that.

"They've got parents," he argued. "Ones who love them and did everything they could to keep them safe."

"Then, their guardian angel?"

Eiji wouldn't answer, clenching his fist. There was nothing he could do here. He wasn't strong enough to fight, and the moment he was defeated, the children would be in danger.

The King tried another tactic, instead explaining, "You're not becoming a Greeed. If anything, you're becoming human—more human than normal humans."

"Is that why I can understand what they're saying?" he challenged. "And the Greeed?"

"Language is a human creation, something no other creature has," the King replied. "We gave it to the Greeed, and they learn quickly. But they can never understand the joy of learning, of creating, of feeling. Every language, every piece of art, everything in existence that we have done and will ever do—that will be your gift. It is not God who created us in his image—we will create a new god in ours. And you are the first step."

Eiji's breathing was sharp and shaky. The King took a step forward with the goblet, but he carefully stepped back, trying desperately not to lose his balance.

"Core Medals are being born within you," he explained. "Much of the matter was lost from your illness, but the energy is still there—stronger in you than in anyone else we've tested. What would have taken the sacrifice of every peasant, noble, and king in this land is being nurtured within you. You will become a new kind of OOO, and your gift will live on."

"No," Eiji insisted again, his voice breaking.

"If that's what you want," the King agreed, moving the goblet away. "But I will still have what I want in the end. The children may not have quite as much promise as you, but this many of them may still suit my purposes."

"No!" he shouted.

"Which is more important to you?" the King demanded. "Your life, or the lives of these children?"

"You're losing control," he pleaded. "It's OOO itself—the Medals contain so much desire; if you're not careful, they'll consume you!"

"_Which one_?" the King shouted. "You, or the children?"

There was no choice. Eiji reached out and took the goblet, above the cries and protests of the children behind him.

It still burned on its way down, too acidic. But it was sweeter and easier to tolerate, and his stomach didn't try to push it back up. The goblet dropped from his shaking hands and shattered as he fell to his knees, doubled over, the inside of his body feeling like it was burning. Having the children so close made it worse—the proto-Core Medals inside him were reacting to the similar energies in their bodies, and he didn't know how much longer he would last.

"You don't have to do this," he whispered, looking up at the King with tearing eyes. "It's not too late."

"No, we're just in time," the King replied, laying him down. He tried to fight against it, but the strength was gone from his body—all of his energy being converted toward creating Core Medals. The King held him, watching as his eyes slowly lightened to gold, murmuring, "One is All and through it is All, and by it is All, and if you have not All, All is Nothing."

Not nothingness again. But Eiji couldn't handle "all" either. Still breaking shakily, he watched the King place his fingers on his eyelids and close them, sending him into a helpless sleep.

* * *

**The quote the King uses at the end is from the _Chrysopoeia of Cleopatra, _a book of alchemy from the third or fourth century, in her description of the ouroboros, the serpent devouring its own tail.**


	7. The Price of Desire

As the fire began to die out, Solaris pushed aside the collapsed wall that had sealed everyone safely within the church's crypt. It had been a rushed evacuation, but everyone had made it, shoving aside knights and racing to the crypt the moment the King had taken Eiji.

"They're gone," she said, her voice hard.

A few parents—those who had not done so already—collapsed in grief. Their children were gone, undoubtedly to be killed by the mad King. And the one man who possibly could have done anything to stop him was also captured, far weaker and sicker than the children had been.

What little was left was still burning, slowly being consumed by flames. Gerhild saw Eiji's shawl, charred, and murmured, "This is all my fault."

"For trusting the King?" Solaris asked. "Probably. But nothing you could have done would have saved anyone this time. He never would have sacrificed everything he'd worked so hard to gain. This was a test—one that would have ended up the same no matter what we did."

"But our children..." a mother insisted.

"For now, probably still safe at the castle," she answered. "It's Hino he wants. The children are most likely bargaining chips, to make sure he'll do what the King says."

"And will he?" a father asked.

"Unfortunately, yes," she replied. "Which means we have to work quickly. As long as Hino is unconscious, everyone is still safe, but he has a disturbing habit of putting himself in extreme danger if he thinks it will help someone else. He'll get himself killed trying to save them, and he'll fail."

"We have to save them," another man said.

"I'll take care of that," Solaris insisted. "One person can get in a lot easier than an angry mob."

"You won't be able to take all the children by yourself," Gerhild argued.

Solaris glared at her, and Gerhild realized that rescuing the children wasn't her goal. Saving Eiji was. Everyone else could burn.

"There are still innocent people in the castle," Gerhild tried. "They can help get us in. We can raid the kitchens, get supplies we need to leave."

"You're making this more complicated than it needs to be," Solaris said.

"It'll buy you time," Gerhild protested.

"And when the King slaughters all of you?" Solaris challenged.

Gerhild wasn't about to back down, not with everything at stake. "It'll draw him away from Eiji. And the children."

Solaris bit back a swear. How was it that everyone Eiji came in contact with ended up just as stupidly stubborn as he was?

She picked up one of the Cell Medals littered around and summoned her energy—a mix of dark cosmic energy and experiments they'd done with the Medals and Gaia Memories. It flared around her hand as she held the Medal, and everyone stepped back in shock.

"What are you doing?" Gerhild gasped.

"Giving you a fighting chance," Solaris said, snapping the Medal in half. A Trash Yummy formed in its wake.

Subtlety was no longer an option; this was all-out war. The villagers immediately gathered all the Medals they could, generating their own army. Nothing in heaven or hell would stop them from bringing back their children, and it was time the King learned there were some things he just could not have.

* * *

Kazari had finally reached the forest when the other Greeed caught up with him. A blast of water hit him suddenly, followed by green electricity. Before he had the chance to recover, Gamel barreled in, taking out six trees as he tackled him to the ground.

"Hold him there, Gamel," Mezool ordered, blasting more water at him.

"Okay," he agreed.

"You can't be mad about me retreating," Kazari replied once he had enough air to speak. "It was a strategic move."

"You abandoned us!" Uva shouted, blasting him again, but being sure to aim his attack away from Gamel. "We could have been destroyed because of you!"

"Like Ankh," Gamel added.

Kazari looked at him in surprise, and Mezool said, "He covered our escape, but the King defeated him."

He was dumbfounded. That was...surprisingly and uncharacteristically _generous_ of Ankh, of any Greeed. Even if it had been in his own self-interests, the fact that he'd tried to give everyone a chance to get out first...

But Kazari was smart enough to know how to turn this to his advantage, and he said, "Exactly why I ran."

"What?" Uva asked.

"If you'd please," Kazari asked Gamel, who got off of him in confusion. He stood up and brushed himself off, explaining, "I knew it was only a matter of time before one of us was destroyed. Better that someone remains to revive you."

"To save us?" Gamel asked, completely confused.

"Of course," Kazari insisted. Gamel would be easy enough to win over; Uva and Mezool far less so, but he was a skilled deceiver. "Unfortunately, by now, the King's probably taken Ankh's Cores. It'll be hard to revive him unless..."

Mezool caught on. "Unless we attack the castle directly."

"Exactly," Kazari said.

"Wait," Uva interrupted. "That's been your plan all along."

"You still feel that aura, right?" Kazari asked. They were silent—the awful, half-formed sensation was still there, like a heart beating without a body. "It's coming from the castle now."

Again, no answer. It was just too unsettling, and even though they were curious, there was still the matter of Kazari's actions.

"But what about Ankh?" Gamel asked.

"We'll have to be ready for his combo when the King attacks," Kazari said. "His plan for a Yummy army was good, but it cost us the element of surprise. If the alchemists are doing something that involves that weird sensation, then they're probably too busy to notice us attacking."

"Gives us the advantage," Uva realized.

Mezool was having none of that, and she pointed out, "The King already knows we're going to attack. He'll be ready."

"How ready?" Kazari asked. "He thinks we've been defeated. He won't expect us _now._"

It almost sounded like a good idea, and as they mulled it over, he added the one thing that would cement it:

"Ankh wanted us to continue the plan, after all."

"Fine," Uva grumbled. He held his claws up to Kazari. "But if you double-cross us again..."

"I would never," Kazari insisted.

"We'll be the judge of that," Mezool retorted.

They didn't dare let him walk behind them as they marched for the castle, but it didn't matter. He had no intention of letting the King do to him what he'd done to Ankh. And there was the matter of all the power that could be found at the alchemists' disposal. Whatever that hideous aura was, it was strong, and Kazari wanted a piece of it.

* * *

He was nineteen again.

The dream brought Eiji back to Africa, nineteen, hungry, and weak. There was a little girl in the distance, crying as rockets were fired on her, and no matter how far he reached his arms out, he couldn't save her.

He could hear Date's voice, words from almost two years later: "What can you grasp with those hands? What can you protect?"

His hands were fading into pale gold energy. Ahead of him, the rockets had struck, and the girl was gone, rubble all around.

He collapsed to his knees, screaming and crying, just as he had years ago. But behind him, he heard a voice asking, "Do you really think you can change it?"

He turned. There stood OOO—Kamen Rider OOO, with his voice, not the King's. He watched patiently, calm amid his other's self's grief.

"I don't want this to happen again," Eiji insisted. "I want to do everything in my power to stop it."

"I know," OOO replied. "But do you really think you can change the past?"

Eiji glanced back at the rubble. A broken Core Medal and a red feather sat atop the wreckage.

"No," he admitted, painfully.

"Then stop trying to act like you can." OOO's words were harsh, but his voice was still kind. "You can't change everything, no matter what kind of power you have. That's what made the King lose control."

"He wanted to be a god," Eiji argued.

"Isn't that the same as wanting the power to change everything?" OOO asked. "You're focusing on things you can't do, instead of what you can. That's why you're hesitating against the King."

Eiji shook his head. "I can't save him."

"No one can," OOO said. "I'm not saying you shouldn't try to save everyone you can, but you're getting stuck, focusing on things you know will never happen. You keep trying to change the King and Solaris, and you can't."

"I changed Ankh," he argued.

"Ankh was different," OOO reminded him. "He wanted to be more human. And he changed you."

Eiji looked down at his wrist. Dream physics were funny that way—despite the Medal being on the ruins, it was also on his wrist, tied to him with his bracelet.

"If you really want to prevent this from ever happening again, you can't hesitate," OOO warned. "It's hard to move beyond the past, but you've got to try."

"It'd be easier if my friends were here," he admitted, looking down. He couldn't look back at the rubble again. Instead, he only saw smooth, white rocks—completely at odds with the wreckage all around him. The rocks were just like the ones she'd shown him when he first arrived, the rocks that had been near her school before it was destroyed.

"I can't remember her name," he admitted quietly. "I don't know why. Everything else, I can remember—the way she looked, the way she cried, the way she smiled when I played with her. I can even remember the rocks she used to show me. But I can't remember who she was."

"There's more to who you are than just your name," OOO reasoned.

"I know," he admitted. "But I lost hers. I'm scared the King's going to take mine away too—take everything away. Make me forget who I am."

OOO was quiet for a moment before asking, "Do you remember what a Kamen Rider is?"

Eiji sighed, "A hero of justice."

OOO shook his head. "That's not enough. A Kamen Rider is someone born from pain—someone who had something awful happen to him who decided he was never going to let it happen to someone else. That's why Kougami called us that. _That's _who you are."

"I'm doing that," Eiji insisted.

"Almost," OOO said. "It's fine to try to save everyone. But you have to be able to save yourself."

"But I..." he protested.

"You're never alone," OOO insisted. "Every friend you've made, everyone who's tried to help you—they've left part of themselves in you. It might not be enough for some of the scars, but it'll help you through the pain. They're never gone."

Eiji looked behind him, hoping to see some sign of Ankh and the girl, or Hina, Shingo, Chiyoko, Date, Goto, Kougami, Satonaka, or any of the Riders. There was nobody.

"Even when they're not there, it doesn't mean you're on your own," OOO said. "That's always going to be inside you."

He was twenty now, wearing the OOO Driver for the first time. King OOO, armed with the Medajalibur and his shield, stood ahead of him, ready to attack. Once upon a time, it had been a praying mantis Yummy, and Ankh had given Eiji the Driver and Medals. Now, instead of Ankh, it was his own OOO who stood beside him—the Hino Eiji that had been created from that bond.

"The only way to survive is to defeat him," Eiji said, echoing Ankh's words.

"Three Medals," OOO agreed. "But they're inside you now. Don't let him get them."

Eiji looked at OOO in confusion. "But how am I supposed to do that?"

The thing about dreams is that while they can sometimes help bring your thoughts and worries into sharper focus, they don't do such a great job of offering a full solution. Only an awake mind could manage that, and so that usually meant it was time to wake up, and once again, to the children's worried questions.

"Is he dead?" one of the boys asked, scared.

"No," another boy answered. "He's crying. If you're dead, you can't cry."

Again. Eiji tried to wipe his eyes, but his arms felt heavy and sore.

"He's waking up!" a girl cried.

He squeezed his eyes tighter and focused on sitting up. He couldn't manage it alone, so some of the children helped him up.

"Thanks," he breathed, his voice scratchier than before from the way the elixir had burned his throat. He felt nauseous for a moment, but nothing would come up. The alchemist had been right—it sat in his stomach better than before.

"Are you okay?" one of the smaller girls asked.

He was able to wipe his eyes this time, and a dreamlike thought hit him—no more crying. The King didn't deserve his tears.

"I'll be okay," he promised, knowing it was a lie. "How's everyone else?"

"We're okay," the oldest boy insisted.

Eiji looked at the boy and smiled at him. He wondered what would happen to him—to all of them. Only one of them would prove to be Kougami's ancestor, and that would be one of the silver-eyed children anyway.

No matter what, he was going to make sure that all of these children had a future.

He tried to review their options. There were probably at least two guards right outside the door—most likely the homunculus knights. Assuming he could summon the power to blast the door off, he wouldn't make it past them. Even if he somehow managed to conserve his strength and take out the knights as well, they were likely in a tower, and it would be a long climb down; he'd never make it. There were way too many small children to make the trip, especially without him to help carry them. Right now, newborn kittens were strong enough to take him out.

But the King had said that the power of humanity—its ability to create and speak—was within him now. And even if he had to wait, maybe he could do something. He took out his notebook and started writing everything that happened to him—starting in Japanese, and slowly straying into other languages.

He started writing a letter to his friends before he realized what he was doing, much less that it was in what he suspected to be Nahuatl. He crumpled it up and barely tossed it over, and the youngest children started tossing the paper ball around as a toy.

That gave him a better idea, and he started to draw.

* * *

It was coronation day, and the King would be crowned anew.

The alchemists were doing well. A throne of Cell Medals was set in the middle of the dovecote lab, and beside it was a roll of undyed silk, atop which were the three crown jewels that would be necessary for the coronation: copper-colored greaves, silvery gauntlets, and a golden crown—meant to sit low on the forehead and sweep up and to the sides, much like the eyes on OOO's mask. But for all they appeared to be made of increasingly more precious metal, from common copper to royal gold, all three were forged of gold—colored alloys from alchemical processes. All perfect for Eiji's ascension to the power for the King's godhood.

He would need to be prepared again, just as at the banquet. The King almost regretted having to coerce him the way he had in the cell, but time was running short, and he needed Eiji's cooperation. He would be treated as the king he truly was soon enough.

A single Medal fell from the throne. It had been so perfectly balanced that the King noticed the fall immediately, and he drew his sword.

"We are being invaded," he said. "Willeson!"

The alchemist came over with another ruby glass goblet. "The elixir is ready, Your Majesty. One final dose should be enough to begin the process."

"Not now," the King replied. "It can wait until we've weeded out their ranks a little."

Willeson had a horrible sense of dread at that statement and repeated, "We?"

"Consider this a test," the King advised. "Join me in battle, and I'll forgive your transgressions, questioning my authority."

It was asking him to commit suicide, and he knew it. Still, he stood a better chance agreeing than refusing, and so he bowed, replying, "Yes, Your Majesty."

"Good," the King said. "Then, to battle."

Indeed, the Trash Yummies had arrived, acting as the front lines. Willeson threw bombs at them, and the King cut down many more, but Solaris continued generating them, constantly replenishing their supply.

"Move in!" she ordered, shifting forms as she charged in.

"This way, follow me!" Gerhild insisted, leading the villagers past the chaos toward the entrance.

A barrage of knights tried to block the entrance, but the Trash Yummies engaged them in battle, preventing them from holding the villagers back. They pushed up the portcullis and broke their way through, finding servants standing around, frightened and confused, but ready to fight.

"Listen, there isn't much time," Gerhild said, taking a maid's hands. "The traveler, Eiji—he and the children were captured and brought here. Where would they be?"

"The tower, most likely," she said. "I brought one of the alchemists some food..."

"Thank you," she replied. Looking to half of the villagers, she said, "Get to the kitchens and get food we'll need for a journey. We're all getting out of here."

"What's going on?" a footman asked.

"The King's gone mad," one of the fathers explained. "He's taken our children—he'll kill them."

"We need to rescue them now," Gerhild insisted.

The servants—already highly disturbed by the events going on that week—wasted no time in splitting up with the villagers and leading them through.

Up the stairs to the tower where Eiji and the children were being held, and the knights readied to attack. Nothing would keep the parents from their children, however, and they plowed into the knights, bashing them against the walls before throwing them down the stairs.

Eiji heard the crashes inside the cell and put his notebook away.

"What was that?" a girl asked, and other children started to cry.

He forced himself to stand, despite how lightheaded he was, and insisted, "Everyone, stay behind me."

The door opened. He was ready to let out another blast of the golden power when he saw multiple figures in the light and heard the children behind him cry, "Mama! Papa!"

He breathed a sigh of relief, almost collapsing as the parents ran for their children, hugging and kissing them. Gerhild walked over to him and helped him stand.

"This way," she insisted in her limited Japanese.

"No," he argued, trying to push away. At this point, he no longer knew what language he was speaking. "Gara's tower—the Medals..."

The parents looked at him, wary, holding their children tighter. Carefully, Gerhild said in German, "Eiji, I understand what you're saying."

He nodded. "The King...did something to me. His elixir. I'm speaking more languages than I knew existed."

"I'm getting you to Solaris," she insisted.

"There's no time," he argued. "I can't let the King have those Medals—I've got to get them to Japan."

Gerhild turned to the parents and instructed, "Join the others in the kitchen, then escape toward the forest."

"Head east, as far as you can go," Eiji added, remembering that eventually, one of those children would be one of Kougami's ancestors.

Finally, one of the fathers nodded. "Good luck."

At this, the children who could broke away from their parents and hugged him. Eiji winced—the proto-Medals flared inside him from the contact—but he patted each head before they left.

"Which way do we go?" Gerhild asked.

"This way," he insisted.

They headed down to the great hall, then through the mirrored walkway in the fireplace that led to Gara's tower. It wasn't in nearly as good condition as when he'd been there last—the pit was there now, and it looked like a small battle had happened there.

Eiji was breathing heavily from exertion, so Gerhild sat him down and said, "I'll look for them."

He nodded, and started flipping through papers Gara had left behind. The more he looked, the more things started to make sense—and that scared him, so he grabbed a couple of pages the Kougami Foundation didn't seem to have and folded them and stuffed them in his pockets. Hopefully, stealing from history would pay off down the line.

"I think I found it!" she cried, pulling out a silver box. She opened it and saw the orange Medals. "This is it!"

"Good," he answered. He tore the last page out of his notebook and wrote carefully, "To Matsudaira Motoyasu," and the year he would eventually become shogun, then drew the crest of the Tokugawa clan. She brought over the box, and he placed the note inside.

"Okay," he said, "we need to..."

He stopped suddenly, realizing something was even more wrong than he'd thought. The cobra tank on the side of the lab was empty. Fear far worse than his phobia ran through his veins, and he insisted, "We need to get out of here."

* * *

The knights were wearing thin; they were stronger than the Trash Yummies, yes, but they were quickly mobbed by the greater numbers, and Solaris could easily create more with the Medals from each destroyed knight.

The hard part was the King. Solaris knew she didn't stand a chance against him, and tried to overwhelm him with more and more Trash Yummies, but he was cutting through them with ease. She had to get the sword away from him somehow, and figure out where he had the Super Medals.

Willeson splashed acid on her arm, but her Mutamit form was more durable than he'd expected, and she shook off the pain, grabbing him by the throat.

"You people already are my least favorite around here," she growled. "Undo what you've done to Hino, and maybe I can forget that for a little bit."

Suffocating, Willeson rummaged through his pouches, trying to find something to help him fight. She didn't give him a chance and butted him with the hilt of her sword.

"I'm running out of patience," she said. "I'll figure it out eventually, but this is going to be a lot easier on the both of us."

But her threat left her open for a few precious minutes. The King came up behind her and stabbed her with his claws. It wasn't lethal—for her, anyway—but it meant she collapsed to the ground in pain, reverting to human form.

"Thank you, Your Majesty," Willeson gasped, clutching at his throat.

The King stared at him impassively, then handed him a leather pouch. Willeson stared at it in horror before saying, "You can't mean..."

"Finish it," the King insisted. "I have more important matters to attend to."

Willeson took the pouch, hanging his head. The King walked off, ignoring the rest of the battle, intent on getting to the castle. As Solaris looked up, reaching for some kind of weapon, Willeson opened the pouch, revealing the missing cobra and a vial of some kind of orange potion. He poured it into the cobra's mouth, then let it bite him.

The transformation was awful. Willeson screamed at his skin bubbled, becoming scaly as it fused with the snake. His teeth narrowed into fangs; his tongue narrowed, lengthened, and forked. His head flattened, and his body elongated, tearing out of his clothing and becoming completely snakelike—except for the all too human-like hands, which were still bubbling as they reached for Solaris, who did everything she could to dodge.

The villagers were escaping from their raid on the kitchen, supplies in hand and children on their backs. At the same time, Eiji and Gerhild made their way out, only to run into the King.

The King looked at Eiji for a moment, and Eiji suddenly started screaming again, the proto-Cores in his body reacting to a strong Greeed presence nearby.

"Ankh!" the King shouted. "The villagers!"

Ankh appeared in the sky and blasted fire around them, cutting them off on all sides. Gerhild struggled to keep her hold on Eiji as he convulsed in pain, gasping for breath and trying his hardest not to cry out again.

"I get what I want either way," the King said. "But I'm generous enough to give you this much. If you give yourself over to me, they will live. I have no use for them."

Eiji was in no state to answer yet, so the King waved Ankh off. With the Greeed's departure, he started breathing more heavily, starving for air.

"Your energy is almost depleted," the King warned. "You stand no chance in a fight. Everyone will be saved if you do this one thing."

Eiji watched the Cobra Inhumanoid grab Solaris with its tail, squeezing her tightly. He listened to the screams and cries of children who'd just moments ago thought themselves saved.

"Head east," he reminded Gerhild as he pushed himself away from her. The King did not notice the box she kept hidden in her surcoat.

He took a few steps forward, and the King waved the sword at the villagers. For a moment, Eiji stopped in his tracks, but the sword only extinguished the flames—like blowing out the candles on a birthday cake. Gerhild ran her way over, and Eiji gave them a few minutes to begin running away.

"Now, come to me, OOO," the King urged.

"Stop calling me that," Eiji insisted. "I'm more than just OOO. I'm Hino Eiji, _Kamen Rider_ OOO."

The King looked at him in amusement. "And what, pray tell, is a Kamen Rider?"

"It's a promise," he said. "That I'm going to save as many people as I can."

"A noble aspiration," the King noted. "Are you going to try to save me too?"

He closed his eyes briefly and shook his head. "I wanted to. I really did. Even knowing what you do and what happens to you—if I could stop it from happening, I would."

Eiji watched Solaris struggle within the Inhumanoid's grip, watched Gerhild and the others run for safety, watched the King reach out for him. He stepped forward.

"But I can't save anyone who doesn't want to be saved," he admitted. "I can only reach as far as my hand will go."

And right now, he could still reach the people here.

The explosion of golden energy was large enough to take out one of the walls of the palace, causing parts of it to crumble. The Greeed saw the light and halted their advance.

"Was that the King?" Uva asked, shocked.

"Let's hope not," Mezool insisted, and they continued their approach.

The King caught Eiji before he could fall. His breathing was shallow, and he'd fallen completely unconscious.

"It was a brave attempt, but my Medals are too strong for that to harm me," the King complimented.

He picked him up and carried him, like a father would carry his child, to the dovecote and his awaiting coronation.

* * *

**Title from a line in Eyeshine's song "Deciding So Blindly."**


	8. Kingdoms Come and Castles Fall

The King canceled his transformation as he carried Eiji inside and gently placed him in a tub of water. A very sharp knife delicately shaved the stubble off of his face. Cool water was poured over his head, as if baptizing him. Aromatic oils to anoint him. Every bead of sweat, trace of dirt—everything that Eiji normally didn't mind because he'd worked hard and earned it—was washed away, purifying him.

The alchemists lifted him out of the tub and set him on the throne. They put the greaves and gauntlets on him, right over his clothes, to create the template for the new OOO. As he held Eiji's Driver, the King looked down at a drawing he'd made in one of his books—the new combo, draped in a long cape, wielding both sword and shield, and conquering an enemy. Yes, Eiji would be perfect.

"There is one last thing," he said as he walked forward. "I will need him awake to finish the elixir."

Khazim looked at Wang before carefully replying, "Your Majesty, there appears to be almost no spirit left in him."

"Yes," the King replied, placing the Driver on Eiji. "He spent most of his remaining energy trying to kill me."

They were hesitant to continue. The King was too calm about such a dramatic attempt on his life. If his own life mattered so little in comparison to the traveler's, what was equal? What was greater? And what else was less?

Finally, Khazim insisted, "There is not enough left in him to complete the Cores. He will die, with nothing to show for it."

"He needs life energy," the King insisted. "Just enough to revive him."

Khazim never saw it coming, and the sword plunged into his heart. Three Cell Medals were placed inside as he twitched, dying in place. Wang, however, leapt forward, removing a pouch from his belt. He grabbed a candle and held the pouch up to Eiji.

"Black powder," he explained. "My people created it in their search for the elixir of immortality, and they've used it for weapons against both living beings and spirits. Should I drop this candle, the powder will explode and kill Hino Eiji. Your plan will fail."

"Master Wang," the King said calmly, "you have always been wise and reasonable. There is no need to resort to such lengths."

He took Eiji's O-Scanner and ran it across the sword. Khazim's body was converted into energy, tearing in half before reconstituting into a single stream of energy—all absorbed into the Scanner. The King set down the sword and handed Wang the Scanner.

"There is only need for one life force," he insisted. "I have already lost Gara, and it appears I will soon lose Willeson. I would hate to lose you too, particularly in such a critical stage of this coronation."

Cautiously, Wang moved the candle away and took the Scanner. He placed it against Eiji's heart, and the energy—a slow, copper stream—flowed into him. Immediately, he took a deeper breath, though he was still asleep.

"He will rouse with stimulus," Wang determined, taking the gunpowder away.

"Then wake him," the King replied. "It is time for the coronation to begin."

* * *

As far as bad situations went, Solaris quite frankly had been through worse, but this was up there. The Cobra Inhumanoid constricting her was making it hard to breathe, and she couldn't produce her weapons, let alone do anything with the Cell Medals she'd grabbed. The villagers were fleeing toward the woods, Eiji had been taken, the fact that her body had been modified was the only reason she wasn't dead yet—it was hard to see how it could possibly get worse.

As if the universe was determined to prove her wrong, at that precise moment when she lost her grip on the Medals, the Greeed arrived.

"That aura is gone," Mezool noticed. "And so is OOO."

Uva looked at the fleeing villagers and blasted lightning toward them. "Doesn't mean we can't have a little fun, though."

"True," Kazari agreed. "But I thought we wanted to avenge Ankh and take down the King?"

Uva sighed in disappointment, but he turned and joined Kazari in attacking the castle, converging their powers to create lightning-infused cyclones. Mezool blasted water at high enough pressures to create holes in the castle walls, while Gamel started smashing whatever was in arm's reach.

The Cell Medals left on the ground from the battle distracted him suddenly, and he started gobbling them up. Getting an idea, Solaris shouted, "Hey, big guy!"

Gamel looked up in confusion. "Me?"

"I think there's more Medals in this thing," she said.

Gamel considered his options: smash the castle for...the sake of smashing, he guessed, or smash the giant snake for the chance of more Medals.

It was an easy choice, and he slammed his fists down on the Inhumanoid's tail. It hissed in pain, and Solaris pushed back, managing to get herself free. The Inhumanoid tried to grab at her with its mutating hands, but she held one of its arms straight and brought up her leg, bringing it down straight onto the arm. It wasn't enough to break it, but it caused a lot of pain—amplified by Gamel's attacks toward its tail. It backed its arms away from her, and she used the opening to make a spinning kick at its head. Furious, it batted her aside, knocking her to the ground.

"Aim for the head," she instructed.

"Okay," he agreed.

He slammed on the ground, increasing the gravitational pull on the Inhumanoid until it collapsed. With a mighty slam, he brought his fists down on its head, and the Inhumanoid was engulfed in flames, hissing to the last. And of course, left behind were the Cell Medals Solaris had dropped.

Gamel got to work collecting them, absorbing half and bringing the rest over to Mezool.

"Look, Mezool!" he cried. "Medals!"

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"I..." he started, holding out the Medals.

She took them, but admonished, "We've broken through. This is no time to worry about Medals."

"Oh," he answered. "Okay."

Still confused, he looked back for Solaris, but she had gone. Why _had_ that human waited until now to run away? Why did she help him get Medals? It was all very strange, but he really wasn't about to spend the time trying to figure it out. Maybe Mezool would help him later.

"Wait for me!" he insisted, running after them into the castle.

* * *

There were no dreams, for the first time in days. Eiji didn't have the energy for them.

He was beginning to hear something—two voices talking around him, sometimes calling his name. He could smell fragrant oils, feel something hard underneath him. He could tell he was sitting, and that he was wet, and that something was on his arms and legs. He could feel the proto-Cores in his body pulsing gently in rhythm with his heart. But he didn't wake until he felt the crown being lowered onto his head.

He opened his eyes. He was in a lab he didn't recognize, full of windows that had been fitted with glass. He was sitting in a throne of Cell Medals, with unfamiliar armor pieces on his arms and legs. Someone had washed and shaved him while he was unconscious, and the fact that he hadn't been harmed when he was at his most vulnerable scared him more than anything else already had. The feeling cemented when he caught a glimpse of his reflection in a window. A heavy crown just as gold as his eyes was sitting on his head.

He barely had time to take it all in when Wang forced his head back, placing another red goblet to his mouth. The shock caused him to inhale some of the elixir instead of swallowing it, and he gagged and coughed helplessly, the elixir burning worse than ever as it was absorbed into the lining of his windpipe.

"Master Wang, please," the King said. "Let him breathe."

A cup of cool water now, and Eiji sipped it carefully as he caught his breath.

"The others," he gasped out.

"The villagers are free to escape, as was our deal," the King replied. "Your so-called master, however—I cannot say how well she will survive against poor Willeson. I must say, I did not expect his transformation to go quite that way."

Wang held the chalice of elixir to Eiji's lips again, tilting it back. He wanted to run, to fight his way out if he had to, but he didn't have any strength left in his body to move, let alone run. He held his breath, trying not to drink it, desperate to hold on a little longer, but Wang pinched his nose closed, forcing him to open his mouth when he ran out of breath. Again, he choked on the elixir, taking it in instead of air.

"It will be easier if you drink it, rather than inhale it," the King advised. "Either way, you will take it."

There was no choice but to submit, and Eiji drank the elixir. The burn was worse than ever—it hadn't been diluted in wine and spices this time, and he choked back a scream as it tore its way down his throat. He tried to muster the energy to lift his arms and push the cup away, but he could only manage a few tremors—tremors that became much more violent the more his body absorbed the elixir. His heart was pounding, the proto-Cores pulsing at the same rate, and in the glass, he could see his eyes were flashing.

Wang pulled back as Eiji convulsed in the throne, shaking some of the Medals to the floor. His breathing was rapid and shallow, and his heart tried to keep up pace, while the proto-Medals drew more and more energy away from it. The crown pushed his head down, forcing him to watch as the King took his O-Scanner and ran it over the empty Driver, then placed the silk over his body.

Despite there being no Medals in the Driver, the transformation sequence began just as it normally would. Energy started to swirl around Eiji, but the Cell Medals were caught up in it. The King backed out of the way just as the Medals started flying in circles before ignoring the silk and passing through Eiji's skin.

He screamed in agony. It was worse than the purple Medals had been—at least then, he'd passed out quickly. He didn't have the luxury here; the energy was keeping him conscious, the pain keeping him grounded in the moment. His skin was a barrier at first, but the Medals still forced their way through without leaving a mark, his energy becoming too much like theirs to keep them out. They were fusing with the Core Medals—there was no point in calling them proto-anything now; the matter was _there_; all that was left was to absorb Eiji's energy—and drew more and more life energy from him. The silk over him was becoming gold, signaling the end of his existence as a normal human. His body was faintly glowing, slowly fading. He couldn't scream anymore and barely felt himself breathing or his heart beating.

The Core Medals were intent on taking every bit of him, and he could barely hold onto his sense of self. He was becoming the Medals themselves, his body and consciousness converting into energy and the source of godhood. The only thing left that he could feel was a terrible burning sensation around his right wrist. He couldn't think of what it was—his ability to think was almost gone. The sensation became more solid, like a hand gripping his wrist tightly. Red patterns appeared on the silk, and a translucent, multicolored wing appeared in his field of vision.

The wing tore the silk off of him, and a solid form appeared in the Cell Medals, slowly taking the appearance of a young man with blonde hair, swept into curls on one side—or so it seemed like he was human. The phantom wings that retreated into his body and the red, monstrous, right hand that held Eiji's wrist as he supported him among the ever-shrinking pile of Medals—they proved he was a Greeed.

Eiji's head fell back so that he could see his rescuer. Barely aware, he breathed, "Ankh?"

The revived Greeed looked down at him with a trace of a smirk. "Eiji."

The King stared in shock. How was this even possible? Beyond the Greeed taking a human form, beyond the way he'd simply manifested from the time-traveler's bracelet, Ankh had been loyal to him; OOO or not, how could Eiji possibly have his loyalty?

Wang, meanwhile, prepared to throw his pouch of gunpowder. Ankh saw it immediately and blasted fire at him. Wang screamed as he got caught in the explosion, the shockwave taking out the King as well.

"That won't be enough to kill him," Ankh judged.

Eiji was only just beginning to realize what was going on. He looked up at his friend in disbelief, grief, and relief. "Ankh!" Trying to get in enough breath, he gasped, "I tried. I wanted to fix your Medal, and..."

"I borrowed some of the energy going into you," Ankh explained. "This body will only last as long as this reaction is going on. We have to hurry and get those Medals out of you."

Eiji shook his head, struggling to withstand the energy conversion. "If I can hold on a little longer, maybe it'll..."

"Idiot!" Ankh shouted. "It's killing you—you think I want that? To come back to life, just for you to die? I'm a Greeed, remember; if I have to give up something to get what I want, then it's not worth it!"

"I..." Eiji protested.

"If you want to bring me back, fine," Ankh said. "But not like this. Find a different way."

Finally, Eiji nodded. "I will. Even if it takes forty years, I'll save you."

"Good," Ankh replied, holding up his hand.

Eiji braced himself. "Get these things out of me."

He placed his hand over Eiji's chest and warned, "The Medals are close to your heart. It'll be tough getting them out."

"Do what you can," Eiji insisted.

"This'll hurt," Ankh warned before plunging his hand in.

Eiji bit back a scream. Ankh wasn't kidding; while his hand had passed through Eiji's skin far easier than it should have, there was enough living tissue still there for it to hurt as badly as the Medals had. Ankh was careful, but Eiji felt the pressure on his heart as he tried to grab the Medals. They were emitting pulses to try to block him, and the energy was interfering with his heart's rhythm. Ankh was tense, barely moving and completely open as the King rose behind him, lifting his sword. Eiji found the strength to lift an arm and channeled the pulse into an energy blast that threw the King through the wall.

"That did it," Ankh said, taking hold of the Medals.

Eiji did scream this time, as Ankh pulled the Medals out of his body. The energy discharge had done enough to keep them from preventing removal, but they were still desperate to cling to his life force, and tearing them free hurt worse than everything else. The Cell Medals still suspended in energy around him started to shake, and all at once, they fell to the ground. Eiji had the last glimpse of a relieved smile on Ankh's face before he too fell apart, into a cascade of Cell Medals.

There were four Medals left on Eiji's chest: the Human Cores and Ankh's—in one piece, but deeply scarred. Ignoring his weakness and pain, Eiji lifted his arm and clutched all of them tightly.

A window near the top of the dovecote shattered, and Solaris leapt in. She scooped up Eiji and the silk still half-covering him, and leapt back out.

Eiji couldn't help but wonder how long she'd been there, watching him suffer.

The King, meanwhile, picked himself up from the rubble, furious. First, Gara had sealed his Reptile Medals. Now, a future Ankh had betrayed him, and Eiji had taken the Human Medals from him. He would not let this indignation stand.

The Greeed found him and surrounded him just as they had in the village.

"Looks like we found the source of that weird power," Kazari noted.

No more. He would not let these creatures lay claim to the godhood that was rightfully his.

He took the Super Medals and placed them into his Driver and scanned them. It wasn't God, but right now, it was the next best thing.

* * *

Solaris carried Eiji out through the courtyard, past the devastation. The sound of the Greeed fighting was in the background, and she noted, "If we're lucky, that'll slow him down."

Nausea washed over him suddenly. He pushed himself out of her arms and dropped to his hands and knees, vomiting gold liquid. The Medals had absorbed most of the solutes, but there were still the solvents and remaining traces of the various chemicals. The transmutation had finished, but it left him a completely frail human.

His arms were beginning to shake, his strength giving out again. To his surprise, Solaris held him up, keeping the silk wrapped around his shoulders like a cape.

"Your fever's spiked again," she said when he finally stopped retching.

He nodded, hoarsely answering, "Whatever was in that elixir made it worse. They kept me from throwing up before so they could get the Medals finished."

There was something in the way she looked at him; it wasn't quite kindness—he didn't think she was even capable of that. Maybe it was humanity. Calmly, she said, "Stay by me. I'm going after your Medals and the sword."

He shook his head. "The King's too strong."

"I know," she answered. "But if I can hold him off long enough to get you what you need to get home..." He was still shaking his head. "Listen. I'm _asking_ you this time. Go to Foundation X—they're the only ones who can save you. This was a suicide mission from the start for me. The Foundation never trusted me, and if I come back without you, do you know what they'll do to me?" He was silent. "They'll save you, at least. They need you. Kougami might have the technology to filter the poisons from your bloodstream, but those Medals did a lot of damage to your body. Foundation X can modify you, restore your strength..."

Eiji kept shaking his head. "I'd rather take my chances this way."

"You'll die," she insisted. "You're dying now. This is the only way."

He forced himself to stand, swaying. "My grandfather said..." He stopped for a second, struggling to stay straight. "He said, 'A man never knows when he'll die. So he should always have underwear for tomorrow.'"

Solaris held him still. "Your grandfather was insane."

"Maybe," he admitted. "But if I live to see tomorrow, at least I've got underwear for then." He held out the Human Core Medals. "These were made from my energy. Maybe, if I transform with them, it'll give me enough strength to hold out a little longer."

"Or it'll kill you right away," she pointed out.

He grinned. Even in the face of everything, he could still do that—even if with a morbid sense of humor. "Then I guess Foundation X won't have any use for me, right?"

She sighed in frustration. "If we come out of this alive, I'm going to study this strange power you have to ignore your self-preservation instincts and convince others to do the same."

The wall exploded out, and they saw Super TaToBa crouching, holding his sword. Solaris transformed and took up her own sword.

"Make it count."

Eiji nodded, slid the Medals into place, and scanned them.

"King! Noble! Vagabond!"

Even he couldn't deny how appropriate it was as he cried out, in comforting, familiar Japanese, "Henshin!"

The energy started to rush back into him, the way combos always did. Once, the energy would overload his body, exhausting him quickly and causing damage, but he'd grown used to it and mitigated the damage. This was his own energy, anyway, and his body welcomed it back for the short time it would be there. His head felt clearer, his muscles stronger, his heartbeat a little steadier than it had been. Even the pain from his illness and injuries was lessened. He could do this, even if just for a little while.

The base color of the armor was white, with copper lines running down his legs until they fully covered his shins and feet. Silver lines ran along his arms, forming strong bracers and gloves. The silk clung to his back, like a cape, and gold formed a mask on his face, in a sweeping pattern the same as the crown had been, with his eyes a lighter shade of gold.

The shield emblazoned on his chest showed the three symbols of the coronation: the gold crown of the King, the silver gauntlets of the Noble, and the copper greaves of the Vagabond. All three were Eiji's symbols, and he pressed his hand against his chest, removing the shield so it would rest on his arm—a weapon to protect, rather than destroy.

But the King was fast, using the Super Medals' temporal abilities to speed past Solaris and hit Eiji before he had a chance to block. He hit the ground, feeling the sword strike him just as he rolled to avoid it. Solaris tried to take advantage of him holding still for a second, but he whirled around and struck her. Eiji only had the time to block against the next strike coming his way.

"These Medals are the finest I've seen," the King noted. "But I _will_ have all of them."

Eiji kept under the shield, taking more hits than he needed to while hiding his own movements. The King didn't see him scanning the Driver, but he heard it as it activated, allowing him to back away just in time as a blast of energy shot out of the shield.

Solaris took over from there, grabbing the King's arms and twisting them around his back the moment he backed away, holding on tightly so that he couldn't escape. It bought Eiji the time he needed to get up, dizzy; it looked like he wasn't completely safe from this combo's energy either.

Solaris tried to tear the sword out of the King's hands, but he clawed at her leg, forcing her to loosen her grip just enough for him to pull free. He slashed at her, then turned toward Eiji, who was still trying to clear his head. A sharp blow with the sword helped bring him back in the moment, and as the King approached again, he spun in quickly to elbow him. To his surprise, the King didn't have a chance to dodge—Eiji had just been too close for him to see his movements in time.

Solaris charged at the same time Eiji tried to get in close again, but the King was on to their plan and sped out of the way, scooping up some of the remaining Cell Medals and scanning the sword, releasing the energy wave. They ducked and pressed on, the wave missing and taking out a tower.

"He has to stop to use that attack," she noticed. "It gives us a chance to dodge."

"So we're out of range if we're too far or too close," he agreed. "He won't want to keep us there."

"Exactly. Move!"

She tried to push him out of the way, but the King cut into the both of them. His attempt to escape, though, was slightly hampered by her sword in the way. He hit it as he ran in, and as he ran back out, blood dripped down his side. He stopped for only a moment, staring in shock—gods were not supposed to _bleed_—and Eiji charged in.

Bleeding meant vulnerability, and vulnerability right now meant victory. The King sped back, stopping to release another energy wave from the sword, but Eiji had already scanned his Driver. An energy blast of his own surged out of the shield and collided with the wave from the sword, exploding in midair. The shock of his own mortality and the explosion stunned the King into one place long enough for Eiji to draw on the greatest physical abilities of humanity, running and jumping through the flames, then twisting to land right in front of the King. The King tried to block him, tried to get away, but Eiji kept one hand moving as he reached for his scanner, making the same open-palmed strikes he'd once seen Kamen Rider Aqua use—powerful and graceful, covering more area as he poured energy into them. Solaris got behind the King and held him in place with the sword, giving Eiji the chance to scan.

The energy poured into his feet now, and he backed up just enough to deliver a crescent kick, moving from inside to the outside. Once that foot landed, he followed it up with a crescent kick with the other foot, moving in the opposite direction. He landed with his back facing the King, then finished the attack off with a back kick, striking him directly in the chest. Solaris let go, and the King fell.

So did Eiji, his body completely worn out, and that was all the King needed. Recovering, he sped over, picking up the sword, and though Solaris tried to catch it, the sword hit Eiji in the chest, where the shield had come from, leaving a gaping weakness. Eiji clung to the hilt, trying to hold the sword off of him any further while trying to pry it out of the King's hands. Solaris got behind him, trying to do the same with one hand as she supported him with the other, but the King was ready for the finisher.

There was no time to reach for Cell Medals, not in this precarious situation. He took the Super Medals, loaded them into the sword, and scanned. The energy wave formed, threatening to engulf Eiji.

Eiji felt a sudden sharp pain in his back and realized he'd been stabbed. Instinctually, his body jerked forward, catching the blade and its energy. The King seemed just as shocked as Eiji was, and that gave Solaris the chance to wrench the sword out of his hands as everything turned white.

And they were gone.

Without the Super Medals, the King's transformation canceled again. There was no trace that Eiji and Solaris had been there, other than the rampant destruction left in their wake. He stood in shock, hearing the Greeed recover.

Ankh was there now, grabbing at his arm.

"Kazari and the others are awake," he warned.

He hadn't seen the time-travelers, hadn't learned of his future betrayal. Fury replaced shock, and the King made his decision.

"I'll lure them into the chapel," he said. "You'll know when to arrive."

Ankh nodded, never suspecting the betrayal ahead as the King transformed into TaToBa and made his way to finish off the Greeed once and for all.

* * *

History continued as it was written.

The Greeed thought they'd cornered the King in the chapel, only to be taken down by Ankh.

The King betrayed Ankh and took his Cores, along with all the others'. Scanning them made him lose control, and he froze as their tomb.

Ankh placed his consciousness in a single Core and tried to retrieve his stolen Medals, his body left behind and inert for eight-hundred years. The rest were sealed.

The orange Medals made their way to Japan and ended up in the hands of the Tokugawa clan, who kept them as a family treasure without knowing just what they were for.

Kougami recovered the tomb and kept it in his art museum, where the Greeed remained sealed until two robbers broke them free.

Eiji came across one of Ankh's Medals, met Shingo, fought to save Ankh. Ankh possessed Shingo, and they had to reveal everything to Hina.

Eiji fought as OOO, devoid of desire until he was overwhelmed by the void. Ankh found the desire to live.

Their friends helped Eiji find his own desire. Ankh died.

Eiji tried to find a way to bring him back, which brought him to Thuringia, where he fought Solaris.

And the circle found its own way of completing.

But now, as the circle's loop was still unapparent, the people once ruled by the King of all greed found their way to a deserted village at dawn and rested.

When they finally woke up, it was time to decide what to do. Not all of the children's parents, adoptive or otherwise, had made it out alive. Some had died in the Greeed's attack on the village, some had died as Uva attacked them during their escape, and some had died from their injuries on the journey. Older children were taken in by the other villagers. The youngest orphans, though, Gerhild took.

"We can't stay here," a woman insisted, feeding her baby.

"We can try to make it to one of the towns still controlled by the Landgrave," a man insisted, naming the Thuringian ruler their King had ousted from the territory. "If we explain the situation, they may show mercy."

"Or we can start over," Gerhild said, keeping the box Eiji had given her hidden. "Do like Eiji said and continue east."

"Where to?" another woman challenged. "No one will survive such a long journey."

Gerhild looked at the twice-orphaned royal children she'd taken in. They weren't her lost friend, or the man who'd given her hope again, but they were her duty, and that was enough.

"You don't have to follow me," she replied. "But I'm going to continue, just like he asked—myself, and these children."

"Gerhild," the man said, having become the de facto leader, "you don't need to do this."

"There's something he asked me to do," she said, "and as long as I'm alive, I'm going to try to do it. Maybe I won't get as far as his land, but they might. Their children might. Until then, I have to try."

They were silent a moment before the man said, "We'll follow until we reach some kind of settlement. From there, we part ways."

"That's fine," she answered. "Until then."

Until then, until the day the Medals reached Japan and Eiji used them to fight Gara once more.

Until then, the circle would continue.

* * *

If this was death, it wasn't so bad.

Eiji could hear voices on the very fringes of his awareness. He couldn't pick out a word they were saying, but it didn't matter; he was in no state to think. He just lay there, consumed in sleep, as if in a dream.

And then a familiar voice, right next to him:

"Idiot."

Dead or dreaming, Eiji picked it out, recognized words as he heard, "You'd think you _want_ to die, with all the risks you take."

You're one to talk, he wanted to say. I wasn't the one who used my Medal in battle despite knowing it was breaking.

He couldn't manage the strength to talk—which was strange, if he was dead or dreaming, since strength didn't matter in either case.

"I can already imagine what you'd say," the voice said. "You always try to argue it, but you're still an idiot. A _useful_ one, but an idiot all the same."

It wasn't a dream. That voice was too close to him, too close to the voice he'd heard in the fight. It wasn't the half-remembered voice he tried to pick out of Shingo while applying words and tones he'd never use.

The thought hit Eiji faster than pain: _It wasn't a dream._

He had to find his strength now, had to reach. His arms felt like lead, but he called on everything within him and reached up, grasping the first hand he could. He felt human skin—something solid, something _real._ If he could manage that, he could manage anything.

"Ankh."

It was barely speech, more like a breath. But there was a sound, something that almost sounded like a laugh, and it was the way Ankh was. The skin became rough, almost scaly, and armored—a Greeed.

"Thought I told you a long time ago you didn't need me to hold your hand anymore," Ankh said.

Eiji didn't care as tears started to form at the corner of his eyes. He couldn't open them—couldn't manage anything other than this grip on Ankh's hand, and even that gave out on him. His hand slipped and fell back to lie with the rest of him.

Ankh placed a Medal in his hand and closed his fingers around it. He didn't say anything more as Eiji fell back to sleep, but he didn't need to. The gesture alone spoke volumes.

* * *

**Chapter title from the song "Kingdoms Come and Castles Fall" by Eyeshine. Inspiration for the coronation came from a scene in the final episode, where Eiji sat on an apparent throne in Kougami's OOO shrine and heard him out on becoming the Medal vessel. Inspiration for the Human Combo's shield weapon, however, was inspired by Dukemon's Final Elysion (Gallantmon's Shield of the Just) in _Digimon Tamers._**


	9. Homecoming

Something was squeezing Eiji's left arm. Then he felt a prick, like a needle.

Blood tests first—the memory of Solaris's words hit him all at once. Had Foundation X gotten him? He opened his eyes suddenly. He didn't recognize the room.

But his eyes settled on Date, sitting at his side and drawing blood from his arm. Date caught his gaze and grinned for a moment before turning serious.

"You're in pretty bad shape," he admitted. "Trying to check your blood right now to see what else we can do."

Eiji didn't understand, but Date removed the tourniquet and the needle, then taped a piece of cotton over the hole in his arm.

"Don't worry about that now," he insisted. "The important thing now is that you're safe."

That Eiji understood, and he closed his eyes again.

The second time he remembered waking up, it was because Date's voice was calling his name. As he opened his eyes, his vision was blurred, though he realized quickly it was from tears. He tried to wipe them, but his left arm had an IV attached. His right was in a sling. He had to blink them away.

"Nightmare?" Date asked.

His expression said the crying had been a lot worse than a few tears. Eiji managed to wipe one side of his face into his good shoulder. Date reached over and helped him wipe the rest of his face with a tissue. "If it was, I don't remember."

His throat felt sore, and his voice was hoarse, but he no longer felt feverish. Now that he was awake, he was beginning to feel everything—on top of the sling, a brace was on his right shoulder to help with the sprain. The wound on his chest hurt and was bandaged; he guessed the same was true for his back. The burn Ankh had left on his wrist was also bandaged.

"The Medal," he realized, gasping. His chest hurt worse when he tried to breathe quickly.

"Calm down," Date replied, handing him Ankh's Medal. "It's right here."

Eiji breathed a sigh of relief, holding the Medal. When he didn't answer, Date said, "Interesting how you managed that. Wouldn't mind hearing the story—not now, of course," he added when Eiji got anxious again.

"Where am I?" he asked.

"Still in Germany," Date answered. "Kougami Foundation hospital. You've been out for days—this is the first time you've been lucid. We found you in the forest, already in a hospital gown. Which reminds me." He tossed over Eiji's passport. "That was lying on top of you, probably in case someone else found you."

Eiji took the passport, feeling a tight sensation in his chest that had nothing to do with his injuries. When his friends tried to rekindle his desire for travel by helping him renew his passport, Chiyoko had let him use Cous Coussier as his permanent residence. As far as the Japanese government, and he, were concerned, that was home. Having it in his hands now was a physical reminder of just how far from home he'd been.

But someone had written a note on the cover, and he read off, "'Thank you'?"

"We didn't recognize the handwriting, so we figured it must have been Foundation X," Date reasoned. "There was a lot that should have been beyond our ability to fix, but by the time we got to you, you were out of danger. The stitches on your chest and back are smaller than I've ever seen—you'll still scar, but you'll have a better range of movement. And while you definitely had some trace poisons in you and elevated copper levels, someone applied chelation therapy..."

"What?" Eiji asked, looking at him in confusion.

"In short, they neutralized the toxins in your body," he explained. "Metal salts, especially. We've lowered your copper levels—maybe over-lowered them, actually—and mostly balanced out the acidity in your blood, but honestly, what we've mostly needed to do is monitor you."

"It wasn't Foundation X," he argued. When Date raised an eyebrow, he admitted, "I don't know how to explain it."

Date nodded, and Eiji went quiet. Solaris had to have been the one to write the note. Part of him wondered if she was okay, since she'd returned without him. Most of him never wanted to see her again.

Those were thoughts he didn't want to dwell on, so he asked, "I thought you were in Turkey helping with war refugees. How did you get here?"

"Well, for one, you were missing for almost a week," he pointed out. "At first, everyone thought Foundation X got you, but one of our time-traveling friends hijacked me onto the Crazy Train and explained you got sent back eight-hundred years." Eiji had to smile. Den-O had been looking out for him after all. "They couldn't say much about you getting home, but they told us where to look and when, and just what we'd need to treat you."

That eased a lot of his fears. Disturbing as it was to consider how important a role he'd played in the past, at least there had always been a plan for after he fulfilled it. That was probably how he'd gotten treatment in the first place—the Kougami Foundation easily could have developed the technology necessary to save him in the future, and once he was out of danger, they sent him back forty or so years to his own time.

But thinking on that brought to mind his other symptoms. Hesitantly, he asked, "This is going to sound strange, but what color are my eyes?"

"Brown," Date answered. "And it's not as weird a question as you'd think. Like I said, when we did your blood tests at first, your copper levels were a little high. There's a genetic disease that causes copper deposition in the eyes as one of the symptoms because the body doesn't eliminate copper the way it's supposed to. You don't have the genes for it, and your liver doesn't seem to be building up too much of anything it shouldn't, but we managed to wrangle a slit lamp in here to check your eyes just to be sure nothing else was going on. Normal."

Eiji nodded, quietly confessing, "When they poisoned me, all of the chemicals they used? My eyes turned gold."

"Hey," Date warned. "You don't have to tell me all at once if you're not up to it. But you're going to tell someone at some point, understand? Right now, we're working on a few things at a time. The energy in your body is extremely low—your blood sugar, for one, and you were bad enough when we found you that I was worried about the mitochondria in your cells. Your blood is still a little too acidic—all of that we're trying to correct with the IV. We'll start you on foods we think you'll be able to keep down—and yes, we figured out about the nausea. It wasn't just coming out of one end." Eiji couldn't help but blush at that. "But I'm going to make a deal with you."

He shouldn't have felt suspicious, but the fact that Date was offering any kind of deals when it came to his medical treatment gave him pause. "What kind of deal?"

"You do the best you can at all of this—you rest when I say to, you don't push yourself too far, and you take care of all of the physical _and_ psychological therapy you're given? And I'll overlook the fact that you're probably still not going to be able to walk in two weeks and let you go home."

That tightness was back, and he had to squeeze the Medal in order to keep himself from crying suddenly.

"Home?" he asked. "Two weeks?"

"If you feel up to it," Date reminded him. "And if you do what I say. We're not going to make the same mistake with you your father did. If you don't think you're ready or if I don't think you're ready, you stay. But keep in mind, this includes some kind of psychological therapy—the Foundation's providing a therapist, and I think it's a good idea. We care too much about you to let you end up in the same situation as last time."

No stigma this time. No talk about how it would reflect on the family. No ignoring his emotional wellbeing. Just an offer to listen and to find someone who would be able to help if they couldn't.

"Thanks," he said, his voice barely above a whisper at this point.

"Anything for my patients," Date promised. "Also, Chiyoko wants you to send her a list of your favorite foods once you're able to stomach solid food. They're throwing you a birthday party when you come home."

Now, Eiji looked at him in confusion. "My birthday isn't for another month."

Date grinned. "You think that's gonna stop the President from baking you a cake?"

Eiji laughed. "I guess not."

"That reminds me, actually," Date said, grabbing a shopping bag. "Picked up your present early. Had to ask Hina about the size."

Eiji managed to take the bag and smiled when he pulled out the gift. "New underwear."

"I figured, since it looks like you destroyed yours to keep Ankh's Medal safe, you probably needed a new pair."

"Thanks," he replied. "But I had another pair."

The smile was gone from Date's face now, and he said, "I went through your stuff myself, just to make sure nothing was stolen. A lot of it was damaged, probably from water, but you had your phone and charger, some papers, your notebook, the Super Medals and sword, the Driver, some really weird jewelry and cloth..."

"My underwear wasn't there?" he asked.

A very unsettling question filled the air, one they wouldn't ask:

Just what did Solaris want with Eiji's underwear?

* * *

Solaris had blacked out during the time rift. When she woke up, Eiji was lying on the ground in the forest, dressed in a hospital gown, his wounds stitched and bandaged. She gathered what little she needed and let him keep the notebook—the Kougami Foundation could have the small discoveries—then wrote a note on his passport and left it on his chest. She didn't know who the sentimentality was meant for—him or whomever had saved him.

She tried to forget it happened. Sentimentality and the possibility of Lima syndrome were too dangerous in her line of work.

She kept out of sight, pilfering necessities here and there from town until she reached the rendezvous point she'd established with Foundation X. When she got there, she found a woman standing by with a stopwatch, surrounded by guards.

"You're late," the woman said.

Neon Ulsland. Former overseer of research projects in Japan, related to the Gaia Memories and NEVER. Now, thanks to the restructuring in the wake of Kannagi's betrayal and the Riders' victories, she was on the board of supervisors.

"They called you in," Solaris replied. "I must have gotten someone's attention."

She didn't kid herself. There were armed guards everywhere, some keeping within sight to block any close attacks to Ulsland, and plenty waiting in the shadows.

"You missed your appointed rendezvous time and never contacted anyone about rescheduling," Ulsland pointed out. "Now, you come back empty-handed."

"Not empty-handed," Solaris replied, keeping her hands visible as she reached for a plastic bag. "Though, I am relieved you're here. It saves me the trouble of having to contact the board myself."

Ulsland raised an eyebrow. "Unless you have Hino Eiji in that bag, I don't see how you're going to make up for your failure. This was your last chance to redeem yourself."

"I don't have Hino," she insisted. "But I have something better."

She handed the bag over to one of the security officers. He took one look at it and offered it to Ulsland.

"Where did these Medals come from?" she asked.

"From Hino himself," Solaris explained. "They were created using his life energy."

Ulsland cautiously looked up from the Medals. "And what happened to him after?"

"He's still alive, though I can't imagine how," she admitted. "Either way, his body is too weak to withstand any testing. I was forced to leave him."

"A shame," Ulsland confessed. "We could have learned a lot, studying him."

"There may be another way to study him, and these Medals," Solaris said, handing over a second bag.

Ulsland looked at it in confusion, taking out a pair of underwear. But something was inside it, and she unwrapped it to find a black knife, completely coated in blood, the cloth around it just as bloodied.

"Congratulations, Solaris," she said. "This should be more than enough genetic material for cloning processes." She offered a hand to shake. "Welcome back to Foundation X. We'll debrief you soon enough."

"Thank you," Solaris replied, shaking.

Maybe Eiji had been right all along. Maybe all you really did need to face tomorrow was a clean pair of underwear—clean enough not to contaminate the DNA sample, anyway.

* * *

The first week was rough. A few days of bland, soft foods, warnings about a feeding tube if he couldn't keep it down, and the IV making up for lost nutrients and sugars. When Eiji's digestive system finally started working normally again, they slowly introduced solid food and removed the IV.

He wasn't allowed out of bed until the start of the second week, and even then, he had to stay in a wheelchair. He had just enough energy to stand and take a few steps, but no stamina to speak of. He was able to go without the sling, which Date admitted was overkill anyway, but he had to keep wearing the brace.

He had nightmares too. Less confusing than when he'd been sick, but still disturbing. But he talked about them now, mostly to Date; the therapist they'd arranged for him would be in Japan. He was still weak, still slept a lot, but Date felt he'd improved enough to send him home. Being with everyone, at least, would do him a lot more good.

He already felt better when Satonaka picked them up at the airport, took one look at him in the wheelchair, and looked at Date. It was nice having people genuinely worried about him, after everything he'd been through.

"I know how it looks," Date insisted, "but he's actually a lot better off than he was."

"I feel better too," Eiji promised.

Satonaka wasn't one to wear her emotions on her sleeve, but he could still tell she wasn't completely convinced, and he didn't blame her one bit.

"I did get sick once, back at the airport in Frankfurt," he finally admitted. "Lunch was a little heavier than I expected."

Date gave a sheepish look to Satonaka. "We tried. Made sure he got a lighter sandwich for the flight."

"That's something," she had to admit.

They started to load their bags into the back of the van she'd brought, and once those were in, Eiji braced himself and stood up to climb into his seat. To his relief, despite how worried Satonaka had seemed, she didn't try to help him when he didn't need it. Knowing that he could still do this much on his own was just as important as the rest of his therapy.

Satonaka and Date loaded the wheelchair in, then took their seats in the front. Conversation was, thankfully, casual. Date talked a little about the situation in the refugee camps, and Eiji asked a lot of questions that he was happy to answer. Satonaka barely had any interest in that discussion and said that Date better have brought back one of the Thuringian sausages she liked; he had, but he wouldn't be able to pull out the box until they got settled in at Cous Coussier. Eiji threw in that he'd have to mention some of the different foods they'd had to Chiyoko in case she needed inspiration for another theme.

It was the last hour open at Cous Coussier when they arrived, and this time, Eiji let them help him out of the van and into the wheelchair. Date grabbed their luggage while Satonaka got the door for Eiji to wheel himself in. He smiled the moment he saw the decorations and food. A Sudanese fair—Chiyoko had indeed been ready for him.

"Eiji!"

The cry and hug came from Chiyoko, who almost sent him rolling backwards as she greeted him. Enthusiastic, but gentle—she'd seen him beat up too many times to hug him too tightly.

Some of the restaurant's regulars were cheering or getting up to see him, and he asked in embarrassment, "Did you tell everybody?"

"Well, of course I did," she answered. "We're all happy to see you."

Date and Satonaka started moving the luggage upstairs to the attic, and Chiyoko moved Eiji over to a table near the kitchen.

"Is Hina here?" he asked.

"She had something she had to finish up, so I had to give her the night off," she explained. "She's really sorry she's not here to see you, but she..."

"It's okay," he insisted, smiling. It felt good being able to really smile again, to relax. "No one can help being busy."

"You'll see everyone tomorrow," she promised. "But right now, are you hungry? I can get you some stew and flatbread..."

Before Eiji could even answer, Date called down, "I don't care if you're going to bed after this—eat something!"

He laughed slightly, from embarrassment. "I guess that answers the question."

"I'll get you just a little," she agreed.

Satonaka and Date came back downstairs, with Satonaka holding the box with her food and a locked box containing the armor pieces and crown.

"You're sure you want to donate those to the Foundation?" Date asked.

Eiji nodded, as Chiyoko brought him a plate of food. "Trust me, I'll feel a lot better when I don't have them around."

They nodded, and Satonaka said, "We'll see if we can recover any of the data from your phone while we're at it. But next time, you can just let the research team take care of transport. They know how to protect everything better."

"Wish I'd known that before we packed everything," Date said, helping himself to some of Eiji's food. "It was a nightmare trying to get those through customs."

"You should have seen the trouble we had with Ankh's body," Satonaka answered.

Eiji paused for a moment, trying to picture what would have happened with them transporting a box containing a mummified Greeed. "I don't think I want to know."

"You really don't," she answered. "Anyway, I'll see you all tomorrow."

"Bye," he said. "And thanks."

She nodded and headed off. Date continued to mooch off of his food (which was fine because Eiji honestly couldn't eat much, and this was the traditional way they were supposed to eat anyway) and rattled off instructions for care, along with the schedules of who was going to be staying with him in case he needed help and when. Nothing intensive was scheduled for the next day, because of the party, so for now, he expected Eiji to relax and be ready to celebrate.

He had to leave the wheelchair downstairs just to get up to the attic, but Date helped him into the room. He was too tired to bother trying to figure out how to handle the bath, and he went to bed while Date volunteered to help Chiyoko with cleanup.

He dreamed of villages in the desert and castles in the forest, but this time, he did not cry.

* * *

Sunlight streamed in through the window next to him, and for a moment, Eiji forgot where he was. He woke up startled—since they'd first learned about Foundation X's plans to kidnap him, he hadn't been allowed in windowed rooms, since they were a glaring security threat, and his room at the castle hadn't had any windows either. But when he saw his familiar surroundings, he calmed his breathing and focused on every physical stimulus in the room. He was home. He was _safe._

Chiyoko had cleared out the attic to make enough room for a fold-out bed for Date and to ensure there wasn't too much clutter around for Eiji to trip over. Date wasn't anywhere in sight, but his stuff was still around, so Eiji didn't worry much. He moved his legs to the edge of the bed and sat, waiting until he was completely calm before standing up, bracing himself the whole way. Belatedly, he realized the wheelchair was still downstairs, but if he was up and standing, then he could walk a bit. Each step timed with a breath, and he made it through the door.

Making it through the room was easy enough. Quickly washing up in the bathroom went fine, and gave him a brief chance to rest. The stairs, on the other hand? He held onto the banister as tightly as he could manage and took the first step. Inhale. Next step down. Exhale. Inhale, right foot. Exhale, left foot. It wasn't as easy as it once had been. His balance was off, and he had to hold onto the banister with both hands as he started to shake from exertion. Finally, he had to sit, still leaning on the banister. He hadn't even made it halfway down.

He could hear voices downstairs—Hina telling Date to hold still, Shingo asking Goto where something went, Chiyoko taking orders for breakfast.

He tried to keep the shakiness out of his voice as he called down, "Can someone help? I'm on the stairs."

He could hear things being dropped and Date swearing, "Damn it, Hino, you're supposed to call for help _first_!"

"Sorry," he called down, trying to catch his breath.

Goto and Shingo made it there first. Both looked worried when they saw him sitting there, but he gave a tired smile and insisted, "I'm okay. I just couldn't make it all the way. Had to sit down."

Shingo was the first to recover from the shock—after all, he'd been there before. Smiling back, he said, "No problem. Goto, you take one side."

Goto nodded, and they each took one of Eiji's arms. Very carefully, they reached behind him and helped him to his feet, then guided him down the stairs.

"I've got the chair," Hina said.

"Good," Shingo answered, and as she brought it around, they gently helped him sit.

Eiji was a little...not quite afraid, but certainly uncomfortable, looking at them. Shingo had adjusted quickly, but there was still a hint of shock on Goto's face—he'd seen Eiji far more beat up than Shingo ever had, but never this bad. He could tell Hina was doing everything she could to keep from crying, and he'd never felt guiltier. He didn't even have the heart to look at Date.

Finally, Hina found the strength to speak, her voice normal. "Welcome home."

He tried for another smile, but he knew he wasn't fooling anyone. Still, he was completely honest when he answered, "It's good to be home," and the tension on everyone's faces started to ease.

Hina turned him around, and he could see what they were setting up. The display table in the middle was decorated with plastic coins and stuffed animals of various birds, wild cats, bugs, large animals, and aquatic animals. The doll Maki had left to Chiyoko was dressed as BraKaWani while holding a sign that read, "Welcome home, Eiji!" It was weird how touched he felt by that.

All around were photos of Eiji during his various travels: Chad, Sudan, Australia, Greenland, Thailand, Siberia, Venezuela, Mexico, and a photo from just a few weeks ago in Germany, before everything started. There were also pictures of him back in Japan, a few precious ones of him, Hina, and Ankh.

When Eiji couldn't speak, Goto said, "Chiyoko and Hina put this together. They decided to throw an Eiji Fair—just celebrating you."

"I..." he stammered. "Thank you."

"Hina, can you take over for me?" Chiyoko asked. "I need to check on breakfast."

"I'm sorry, I forgot!" she said, checking to make sure Eiji would be fine before dashing over toward Date, who was holding as still as possible in a sleeveless grey hoodie and black jeans that reminded him of SaGoZo. Grey, fingerless gloves finished the costume, and Hina put the last pin in place on the hoodie before taking it off Date.

"Sorry," she said. "I'll sew this up really fast."

"No problem," he replied. "I'm flattered you think I'm that muscular, though." She laughed and took the hoodie to a table, where a sewing machine had been set up. Date looked over at Eiji. "Hey. Sorry about snapping at you like that."

Eiji shook his head. "It's okay. I should have asked for help."

"More like I should have thought about making better arrangements for when you woke up," Date said. "It's only natural you'd want your independence, especially when you're trying to recover. I need to figure out a way to arrange for you to do what you can on your own."

Chiyoko came out of the kitchen with a few plates and set them on a table. "You know, Shingo told me there should be plenty of room at his and Hina's apartment, if you want."

Eiji looked at Shingo in surprise, and he explained, "We've got an elevator, so it's a little more accessible. There wouldn't be as much company, but..."

Eiji smiled, but shook his head. "It's a little tricky right now, but I like it here. I think constantly being busy helps."

"Well, make sure you rest too," Chiyoko warned, setting a cup of green tea in front of him. "Moroccan mint—let me know how it is."

He took a sip. Sweet, but not overly so—the mint took care of most of it. "Good."

She breathed a sigh of relief. "I didn't want to add as much sugar as the recipe usually calls for, since I was worried everyone would think it was too sweet..."

"It's fine," he insisted.

She smiled back. "We've still got plenty of time before the party starts, so eat up."

"I will in a minute," Hina promised. "Almost done."

As Eiji gave her and the costume a curious look, Goto whispered, "The costumes were her idea. Everyone's got one, based off one of your forms. With you coming home early, she's been rushing to finish them."

"Don't start feeling guilty again," Date warned, skipping the tea and going straight to the food. "You need to be home, and you know it."

"Finished," Hina said, and she came back over with the hoodie. "Here you go."

"Thanks!" Date replied, grabbing it and shrugging it on. "Nice fit."

"Thank you," she answered. Then, looking over at Eiji, she added, "I made one for you too. When you're done eating, I want to make sure it fits, if that's okay."

"I can do it now," he offered. "I'm still kind of full from last night."

"Are you sure?" she asked. He nodded. "Okay. Let me help you upstairs."

She started to lift the chair, not noticing the horrified looks on everyone's faces. Nervous enough, Eiji insisted, "I think I'll be okay to walk. With help."

"Okay," she replied.

She helped him up the stairs, and he could hear Date whispering at the table, letting them know just how bad his condition had been when they'd first found him and how he'd worried they'd been too late to save him. He took a breath. It was going to be a long road ahead, and he was going to be worrying everyone along the way, but he was going to recover his full strength.

"Are you okay?" Hina checked.

"Actually, yeah," he answered.

When they got into his room, he sat on the bed while she helped him change. She managed not to react when she saw the stitches on his chest and back, but she was careful around those injuries and his shoulder all the same.

Black pants, run through with green lines. Black shirt underneath a loose, yellow shirt emblazoned with TaToBa's symbol. A light, red scarf.

"You really got my style down," he admitted.

"Well, I noticed you liked loose clothes, and especially after being in the hospital, I thought it might be more comfortable," she said, hemming his pant legs. "I was home yesterday finishing this."

"You did a great job," he replied. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," she answered. "But that's not your only present—I'll give it to you downstairs, after we've all changed."

"Actually, I've got a present for you too," he admitted, reaching across the bed for a gift bag.

Hina took the bag and found the silk—gold, now, with red scrollwork resembling feathers. "It's beautiful."

He grinned. "A gift from me and Ankh." When she looked at him in shock, he promised, "I'll explain everything when everyone's here."

She smiled back. "Okay. You wait here. I'm going to get dressed."

He nodded as she headed toward the bathroom. It was going to hurt to talk about it all, but all healing hurt at first.

Hina had really outdone herself with the costumes. Chiyoko's ShaUTa dress had light blue sashes for sleeves, much like the eel's arms, tentacle-like ribbons on a blue tutu, suction cup tights, and a small top hat with an orca on it. Goto's GataKiriBa costume was based off his old platoon gear—a tight, long-sleeved bright green shirt underneath a darker green flak vest decorated with a stag beetle's horns, and green camouflage cargo pants. Hina herself had opted for PuToTyra, with a purple ribbon atop her head that ended with wings like a pterosaur, a pinker-colored top with three studs on the sleeves to represent a triceratops, and the darker purple skirt had a long sash much like a tyrannosaurus's tail. Shingo, however, had dressed as TaJaDor: a necklace with a hawk pendant, red peacock-feather print on a black top, black pants ending in red outlines of talons. But the right sleeve was red, and the design of the talons had clearly been inspired by Ankh's hand.

When he caught Eiji staring, Shingo explained, "We planned this a long time ago. If it upsets you..."

Eiji shook his head with a grin. "I'm just surprised you didn't go all-out with the hair too."

Shingo laughed. "I'd rather avoid doing to my hair what Ankh did."

Satonaka and Kougami arrived a few hours later, toting a massive cake. Satonaka had a black denim jacket with a faux fur lining around the collar, a yellow mini-dress with tiger stripes, and cheetah-print leggings. Kougami, however, had a bright red blazer over a yellow shirt with a black tie and green slacks—perfectly and horrifyingly Super TaToBa.

Eiji whispered to Hina, "You didn't have to design any of that, did you?" She shook her head. "I thought so."

"Happy birthday, Hino Eiji!" Kougami bellowed.

"Thanks, everyone," he answered. Looking around at everyone, he said, "Well...I guess we should start, right?"

The food was a mix of things Eiji liked from all different countries, along with a couple of Hina's own specialties. Nobody called attention to his small portions or if he didn't finish something. Today wasn't the day to worry about him; they'd done enough of that already.

They were starting on the cake when they had him open presents. A backpack from Chiyoko, who thought it would be easier for him to keep his research materials in when he was traveling. The Kougami Foundation gave him a bonus, already paid to one of his favorite charities long before he could protest he didn't need it. Satonaka replaced the bracelet he'd torn apart protecting Ankh's Medal and made it clear what would happen if he destroyed this one. Goto and Date contributed one of the Birth system's Medal dispenser bracelets, to make it easier when he needed to grab Medals in a hurry. He wasn't surprised at all when Shingo gave him the newest model of his broken phone—in fact, he cringed.

"Sorry about breaking it," he apologized. At least it was grey, and not silver or gold like he'd seen from some of the new models; he wondered if maybe the DenLiner crew had tipped him off too.

Shingo shook his head. "You were due for an upgrade anyway. I got you the 64 gig model, so you'll be able to store more on there. The camera's up to eight megapixels, and video at 1080..."

"Uh, sorry," he interrupted, "I might be fluent in three languages, but I don't understand a word you just said."

Shingo blinked, and Hina laughed, "That's just my tech geek of a brother. Open mine now."

He took her box and found a notebook, designed by the same friend she'd gotten the Medal case from. "Thanks. I ran out of pages in my other one."

"I figured," she said. "That one doesn't have lined pages, so if you need to draw anything, it'll be easier."

He nodded, then reached for his old notebook. "About that..."

He spread it open on the table, placing the pages he'd stolen from Gara there too. Some of the ink had run, but whoever had rescued him had been careful about drying them—most of the writing was still legible, and the pages of his notebook had been dried just so that most everything remained instead of bleeding together completely.

"I don't understand most of it, but those are from Gara's lab," he explained. "I knew the Foundation didn't have them, so I figured there wasn't any harm in taking them. But..."

They waited patiently for him to find the words to explain. He couldn't, so he turned to the drawings, purposely setting them against his earlier sketch of the castle. Despite the water damage, the difference in talent between them was obvious—in fact, the pen strokes of the later drawings blended together almost like it was intentional. Immediately, the silence turned to shock, and Chiyoko asked, "Did you draw these? They're beautiful."

He nodded. "Each one of them is one of the children I met in the kingdom."

"I didn't know you could draw like that," Goto admitted.

"I can't," he said. "It's part of what happened to me."

Hina picked out one picture among all the others and asked, "Eiji, is this..."

He nodded. "The girl I couldn't save."

Date looked critically at the drawing, picking up the difference in the strokes and trying to read what had been lost from the soaking. "It looks like..."

"It's calligraphy," he admitted. "In Arabic. It's funny—I can't even remember her name, but I wanted to tell her story. Everything of it I knew."

And slowly, he began to tell them everything—about the children, the alchemists, the experiment, and the King. About Ankh and Gerhild and Solaris. About the nightmares and the way he wasn't sure if he'd dreamed Ankh being with him while he recovered, and his suspicions he'd been sent forward in time for treatment. It was hard at first, and confusing, but the more he said, the easier it became, even the painful parts. No one said anything—they all seemed to realize that if he broke his flow just once, he'd never be able to get it out again. But when he was done, Hina and Chiyoko hugged him, and he felt just a little bit better. Satonaka, as always, was hard to read, but Kougami looked grim. Shingo and Goto both looked serious, and Date exhaled as he sat back.

"Knew it had to be rough, but I didn't expect that," he admitted. "Explains a lot of your symptoms."

"It probably would have been easier if it was a straightforward kidnapping," Eiji confessed.

Satonaka picked up the notes he'd started scribbling in various languages, giving them looks of confusion—and this time, not just from the way the ink had run.

"Sorry," he said. "I don't even remember what I wrote. I suddenly understood all these languages I never did before, and I guess that was me losing control."

"We'll find someone who can translate it," she answered.

Goto, however, flipped through his notes about the disappearing wildlife. "Local extinction event...I can't believe something like that was used to create the Medals."

"A side-effect," Kougami explained, his voice unusually grave, "of a large desire running out of control."

"We can't use that to create the new Medals, or to revive Ankh," Eiji pleaded. "He saved me, knowing it would cost him his chance at life again. He wouldn't want to come back if it meant others had to die."

"That's not how he was," Shingo agreed.

"We'll find some other way," Kougami promised, "but it sounds as though you still want something regarding this."

"I do," he admitted. "I want to look into this, to keep researching in Thuringia—not now, of course, but sometime after I'm better. I think if I can confirm this, it won't just mean we can find another way to save Ankh—I think we might be able to find some way to save more people too."

When he saw everyone smiling, he knew he'd allayed their fears for a while. Sure enough, Kougami replied, "Wonderful! I'll put together a team from the environmental sciences division to assist the archeology department. You put that desire to good use."

And now, Eiji couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable. Seeing the look on his face, Hina asked, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said. But nobody believed him, so he added, "Well, it's just...the King was a lot like you."

Kougami nodded. "I'm not surprised. Everything I've done in my life has been inspired by my ancestor."

"And I guess..." he paused again, trying to put it in words. "Everything I did as OOO was different from the King. With everything Ankh told me about him, I didn't want to be like him. And with everything that happened to me, I let everyone fill me with their own desires, and he took advantage of that. Even when I knew that, he still...he was still too much like you. And like me too, in some ways."

"Being similar doesn't make you like someone," Chiyoko warned.

"I know," he said. "But it didn't make it any easier."

"Eiji," Hina said cautiously, "what was the King's name?"

He gave a one-sided shrug. "I don't know. Even in his own writing, he called himself OOO."

"Isn't that your difference?" she asked. "He forgot himself in his desire—anything that was good in him eventually was lost to his greed. You've stayed the same."

"I guess so," he said.

She took his hand gently. "You know. We all do. Ankh did too. Otherwise, he never would have come back to help you, or stayed by you while you were hurt."

She placed his hand on the cracked Medal for emphasis, and he closed his hand around it. Hina kept her hand on his, smiling gently, and finally, he did too. One way or another, everyone was there—everything he wanted and needed. He was going to be okay—as long as he had them, he could believe it.

* * *

**Eiji's condition at the end is partially inspired by Korra during the finale of Book 3, leading into the start of Book 4 of _The Legend of Korra._**


End file.
